If they create a category of “best idea for a film” at the Academy Awards, “Yesterday” directed by Danny Boyle would undoubtedly be a formidable competitor this year. The starting point of this movie, which is part of the wave of musical films that have brought this genre back to the preferences of the audiences in the last two years and made some nice cash as well is the hypothesis of a world in which the Beatles have never existed. Does this sound like a dystopia? To appease your fears I will add that after the imaginary event (but in fact very possible – an electromagnetic solar source pulse with catastrophic effects on people’s memory and on the machines they created) a few other landmarks of Western civilization, including Coca-Cola, are almost forgotten by most of mankind. Well, Pepsi and the Rolling Stones survive, but I assure you that this is not a catastrophes movie.
The film’s hero, a mediocre amateur musician, is almost the only one on the face of Earth who seems to have been spared by this selective amnesia. When sharing with the people around him the Beatles songs, the cultural shock has mixed effects, but eventually they claim back the audiences on the planet, and also make our hero a world celebrity, one of those who fill the stadiums and sell music on all channels and available media. The first part of the movie works well, at least for those who know the music and agree that the genius of the Beatles is equivalent to that of Mozart. I’m not sure about the impact of the movie among younger audiences. I saw the film in a movie hall where part of the viewers were teenagers who were probably more familiar with the figure and music of Ed Sheeran (who has quite a substantial cameo role), and they seemed a little confused. After all, if you did not hear ‘Hey, Jude’ for several decades, why wouldn’t it work as well, or even better as ‘Hey Dude’?
The movie asks explicitly or implicitly some questions about the Beatles. What caused their phenomenal success and the way they changed the course of pop and rock music in a few years of intense activity (compositions, recordings, concerts)? Just or mainly their music, or their personalities, their way of being and dressing, the scandals created by them and especially around them? The authors of the film seem to support the thesis of the importance of music, and hence the choice of a relatively anonymous actor (Himesh Patel) who creates a sincere and super-naive character, charismatic only through the music that we know well, does not belong to him. The Today of “Yesterday” is our time, with the advertising machines and the image makers who can invent stars but can also destroy the lives of those behind the shining masks. As the story progresses, the movie loses speed and slips into little compelling melodrama which cannot be saved even by Lily James, the beautiful and talented actress, known from theater plays on the best English scenes.
“Yesterday” is a must-see movie for Beatles fans. The first part is superb. The continuation belongs to the ‘feel-good genre and, despite the attempts to preserve originality, it disappointed me a little. ‘All You Need Is Love’? Perhaps that’s not always enough.