As a pretty big fan of British comedies, when I heard that there was a new movie by legendary writer Richard Curtis called 'Yesterday', I got my hopes up. I thought that there was a good chance that the film would deliver and that it would be worth my time.
After all, since my hero Curtis had written movies like 'Love Actually' and 'Notting Hill' and the new film had a strong premise, things looked good. I was confident that the movie about 'a guy who's the only person to remember that The Beatles existed' would work.
Having now seen the movie with my friend, I have to say that 'Yesterday' as a film did turn out to be really good. Even though some critics haven't like it that much (62% fresh at Rottentomatoes.com), the movie was definitely worth watching.
In essence, the story in the film is about a struggling musician (played by Himesh Patel) who one day notices something truly weird. Once a global power outage occurs, he seems to be the only one who remembers that a band called 'The Beatles' ever existed.
Not surprisingly, once our protagonist casually starts playing the band's music to his friends, they immediately think of him as some kind of a musical genius. How on earth did a guy like him suddenly come up with awesome songs like 'Yesterday'?
Later on in the film, once he gets past the usual struggles for an unknown artist, the inevitable happens. After he gets enough exposure as a musician, he becomes the biggest artist on the planet and things start to get more and more complicated.
So when it comes to the quality of the film, one of the best things about the film is that the story in it is creative. Even though the script follows the standard story structure, the movie fortunately doesn't take the easy way out with its story beats.
By that I mean is that had 'Yesterday' been your usual 'Hollywood' hack fest, you would have guessed all the story beats way before they happened. In that case you'd have gotten the usual 'guy gets famous, gets too cocky, loses it all and needs to learn a lesson'.
Fortunately in this movie, the protagonist has integrity throughout the movie. He tries his very best to do the right all the time and at no point of the movie acts like a jerk (which I can guarantee would happen in a Hollywood movie).
Another major reason why the movie works so well - not surprisingly - has to do with it how well it's acted. The movie relies on its main actors not only to be able to act well but also to be capable to perform all those various songs.
After all, without the ability of Patel as a solid actor and a gifted musician, I doubt that the movie would have been as entertaining as it turned out to be. He genuinely manages to deliver here and brings that much needed authenticity and honesty to the film.
By that I mean is that had 'Yesterday' been your usual 'Hollywood' hack fest, you would have guessed all the story beats way before they happened. In that case you'd have gotten the usual 'guy gets famous, gets too cocky, loses it all and needs to learn a lesson'.
Fortunately in this movie, the protagonist has integrity throughout the movie. He tries his very best to do the right all the time and at no point of the movie acts like a jerk (which I can guarantee would happen in a Hollywood movie).
Another major reason why the movie works so well - not surprisingly - has to do with it how well it's acted. The movie relies on its main actors not only to be able to act well but also to be capable to perform all those various songs.
After all, without the ability of Patel as a solid actor and a gifted musician, I doubt that the movie would have been as entertaining as it turned out to be. He genuinely manages to deliver here and brings that much needed authenticity and honesty to the film.
In hindsight, when I think about the movie, the only real problem in it has to do with some parts of its screenplay. Even though the story is well paced and didn't feel boring at any point, the 'romance' part in the film didn't work as well as it should have.
After all, especially when it came to the moment of Ellie (played by Lily James) finding someone else, I felt that this part in the story was a bit rushed. That part could certainly have used some polishing and could have been better written.
Still, when I think about the film as a whole, it's pretty clear that even though there were some tiny problems in the story, these minor flaws were not that important. They did not prevent me from enjoying the movie as a whole.
After all, despite the film's minor flaws, there are so many good aspects to the movie that make it shine. These solid comedic and dramatic moments and the overall uplifting tone of the movie certainly made me enjoy the film very much.
After all, especially when it came to the moment of Ellie (played by Lily James) finding someone else, I felt that this part in the story was a bit rushed. That part could certainly have used some polishing and could have been better written.
Still, when I think about the film as a whole, it's pretty clear that even though there were some tiny problems in the story, these minor flaws were not that important. They did not prevent me from enjoying the movie as a whole.
After all, despite the film's minor flaws, there are so many good aspects to the movie that make it shine. These solid comedic and dramatic moments and the overall uplifting tone of the movie certainly made me enjoy the film very much.
In that sense, if you're someone like me who likes to watch romantic comedies and likes to listen to 'Beatles' songs, 'Yesterday' is almost definitely for you. You should give the film a chance and not be discouraged by what some critics have said about it.
After all, even though some critics complained that the film doesn't go deep enough in exploring the premise of 'what if', you shouldn't believe their criticism too much. That aspect of the story is not what the movie in its essence is about.
On the contrary, when you look at the movie as a whole, what the film really is about is about idealism and kindness. It's about being good and kind to each other and making sure that no matter what happens, in the end we are still able to do the right thing.
After all, even though some critics complained that the film doesn't go deep enough in exploring the premise of 'what if', you shouldn't believe their criticism too much. That aspect of the story is not what the movie in its essence is about.
On the contrary, when you look at the movie as a whole, what the film really is about is about idealism and kindness. It's about being good and kind to each other and making sure that no matter what happens, in the end we are still able to do the right thing.
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