“Yesterday”

What would happen if the Beatles didn’t exist only to one person? That’s the clever premise to this cute little Danny Boyle film. Hemish Patel plays a struggling musician who can’t get anywhere, but when he has an accident during a world wide freakish blackout, he wakes up from the hospital and finds out that he is the only one in the world who has ever heard of the Beatles music. So what does he do? He steals their songbook and takes on quite a successful career taking credit for their tunes. The movie works mostly out of cleverness and cuteness. Patel and his long suffering manager Lily James are very likeable. For the first 2 reels you buy into this and there is a little mystery as to when the shit will eventually hit the fan. That all worked for me. What didn’t work for me was how conveniently everything resolved itself. The ending is feel good, but how it got there didn’t work. I also didn’t care for the cartoon work of Kate McKinnon as the Patel’s manager after he found success. Her role didn’t work for me or did Ed Sheeran. Not sure why he was in the film. The movie is cute and enjoyable and for all its problems, I recommend.

Rating: (***)