Yesterday (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Danny Boyle

Starring:  Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran, James Corden

Jack Malik (Patel) is a struggling musician.    His career, consisting of pathetic gigs attended only by his friends and his ever-optimistic best friend/manager Ellie (James), appears to be over as Jack is mulling a return to teaching.   Then, a miracle occurs.   As Jack is riding home on his bike one night, the power goes out worldwide for twelve seconds and Jack is hit by a bus.   After being released from the hospital, Jack plays Yesterday by the Beatles at his welcome home party and no one recognizes it.    Ellie is floored.   "When did you write that?", she marvels, and Jack is puzzled.  Surely, they're pulling his leg.  No one had ever heard of Yesterday?  Or The Beatles?

Well, Jack searches for The Beatles on the internet and the closest match is to the insect.   Realizing this is not a prank, Jack takes a hard look at himself and determines to revive his music career by passing off The Beatles' songs as his own.    What's the harm?    In this strange alternate universe, no one knows who The Beatles are except for Jack, so why not pretend you wrote some of the greatest songs ever written and make kajillions in the process?   

This is the amusing concept for Yesterday, which is surprisingly able to provide a heartfelt payoff to the concept.    One of the misgivings I had about watching Yesterday's trailers is wondering whether writer Richard Curtis and director Danny Boyle can provide a substantial third act after such an intriguing setup.   The story ends as you would expect, but finds inspiration from a poignant source.   I won't reveal what that is, but the meeting between Jack and a certain someone who in this world is but a humble artist packs a punch.

Jack amusingly struggles to recall the words to Eleanor Rigby and some other Beatles songs as he tries to "write" them, but he remembers a lot and he is suddenly cutting an album, touring worldwide with Ed Sheeran, and being wooed by a bottom-line obsessed record label executive who believes Jack could be the biggest music star the world had ever seen.    Even bigger, then...The Beatles.    All Jack has to do is keep remembering the music and lyrics and the cash can be printed.    There are complications, such as objections to Jack wanting to call his album "The White Album" (because it may offend those of other races), and Jack's fears of being exposed as a fraud, but these are minor quibbles as Jack hurdles towards fame.  

Then there's Ellie, who makes her love for Jack so obvious I wondered for a while if Jack was perhaps gay, since he steadfastly refuses to recognize her signals.    Lily James has a smile and eyes to die for, and we can only shake our heads as Jack continually fails to notice this.    Both Patel and James are warm and likable.    Most of the people in Yesterday are, except for Debra (McKinnon), the reptilian record executive whose greed borders on self-parody.

Without going into much detail, Yesterday ends as you figured it might (I will at least admit that all of this is definitively not a dream, thank goodness), although if Paul, John, George, and Ringo still exist as people but not as the writers of the songs, then who wrote them?    Where would the royalty checks be sent?    You'll see what I mean.    But, Yesterday still succeeds as a high-concept movie which could've easily faltered in the third act.    What Jack does makes him a candidate for sainthood, but in the context of one character's words of wisdom, "I'm happy, so I'm successful," Jack's actions and their aftermath make sense.