Yesterday (2019)
Director: Danny Boyle. (12a)
Comedy
Star rating: 3/5 worth watching
Synopsis
Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a musician with a small amount of talent who has eked out a living singing in pubs and other small-scale gigs, supported by his adoring friends including the sweet Ellie (Lily James).
One day, there is a global electrical blackout and the people of the world slow down for 12 seconds. Likewise Jack…and the driver of an oncoming bus.
After Jack wakes in hospital, minus two teeth and no recollection of how he got there, he starts singing Yesterday by The Beatles and is startled to find that none of his friends know the tune or the band.
An internet search reveals no history of them, but his friends want more and gradually he starts to build a career on the work of a band who only exist in his head.
But how will Jack cope with suddenly being thrust to the firmament of pop super stardom? And will he finally tell Ellie he loves her?
Review by @Reelreviewer
"The world is full of miracles. Like Benedict Cumberbatch becoming a sex symbol" says Lily James in this minor-miracle of motion pictures itself - a Richard Curtis-scripted flick that is actually funny.
It's not a laugh-out loud gag fest, but it's cute and delivers the gags with some amusing characters.
American actress Kate McKinnon can take a deep bow thanks to her turn as the monstrous, PR nightmare Debra Hammer who never gets to know the details of her clients lives such as whom they love because "they are only a commodity".
It's thanks to her and the rest of the support cast that those laughs come out so well because the leading couple don't work at all. Patel plays the same nebulous loner he has played in Eastenders for years. He just doesn't have the charm or smarts to convince an audience that he could keep someone as pretty as James waiting in the sidelights for over a decade.
And James acts if she hasn't been sold on this idea either.
For more, read the full review: bit.ly/Yesterday2019
Cast & credits
1hr 56mins/116mins. Etalon Film/Working Title Films/Universal.
Producers: Bernard Bellew, Tim Bevan, Danny Boyle, Richard Curtis, Eric Fellner, Matthew James Wilkinson.
Writer: Richard Curtis.
Camera: Christopher Ross.
Music: Daniel Pemberton.
Sets: Patrick Rolfe.
Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia D Martino, Ellise Chappell, Mera Syal, Vincent Franklin, Joel Fry, Michael Kiwanuka, Karma Sood, Gus Brown, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Ed Sheeran.
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