Yesterday (2019)

Yesterday (2019)

Directed by Danny Boyle. 

Witten by Richard Curtis

Starring Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran and Joel Fry.

So first of all I would like to apologise for how late this review is and how irregular my blog has become. I am working on ways to improve my blog and you may hopefully see some changes/improvements made in the near(ish) future. 

Second of all, yes I am aware that Yesterday has been out in cinemas for over a month, but in my defence I was travelling through Europe the first three weeks after its release date! 

*and then I got lazy and went on holiday to Cornwall… which is not a valid excuse so I can only apologise… again… 

**damn you Cornwall and your beautiful distracting scenery. 

Yesterday follows the story of a struggling musician called Jack, who after getting hit by a bus during a worldwide black out, finds himself the only person who can remember the Beatles. Jack becomes famous after taking credit and writing and performing their songs and, along the way realises his feelings for his friend and original manager Ellie (played by Lily James).  

I really enjoyed Yesterday, however to me the plot felt rather simplistic in places and followed a lot of classic rom-com tropes. Which if you're a fan of Richard Cutris, you will love. 

Despite its lacking plot the film still has good moments and great individual performances. 

The first being Himesh Patel’s performance, which to me is what carries the film. I think he was a great lead, I was completely immersed in his performance. He made me laugh, he made me cry and his chemistry with Lily James leads to a great performance. 

Lily Jame’s performance was also brilliant and I feel completely in love with her character to the point where I wanted to dress like her. I even thought about dying my hair brown, like her character but decided I liked my bleached hair too much for that.

I do believe that the comedy moments throughout the film helped carry the simplistic plot also. Some of my favourites included:

• Whenever Jack (Patel) would ask for a coke and everyone would look at him like he was crazy because Coca Cola didn't exist anymore. 
• When Rocky asked him what smoking was, because again it doesn't exist anymore. 
• Oasis no longer existing because their main inspiration were the Beatles. 
• Right at the end when Jack makes a Harry Potter reference and no one understands because Harry Potter doesn't exist. 
• Jack meeting John Lennon - which honestly made me tear up a little. 
• Jack’s parents and neighbours interrupting him every time he tried to play them a song

The difficulty with this film is that, for me, it wasn't memorable enough. It's the type of film that when people ask you what you thought of it, your response would be “yeah it's okay”, and then the topic of conversation would change.  

To summarise It’s a typical heterosexual rom-com, full of predictable moments that my 50 year old mother loves but I am quite frankly sick of. However, it is an enjoyable funny film with a great soundtrack and I would watch it again.