Suffolk. After a traffic accident, Jack Malik, an aspiring songwriter who makes ends meet by working in a store, wakes up in an alternate reality where the Beatles never existed. He uses this opportunity to simply copy every Beatles song he remembers and present it as his own. His best friend / manager, Ellie, helps him make an album, and little by little, the word of mouth spreads. Musician Ed Sheeran invites him for a concert and is amazed by the songs Jack plays. Quickly, a new, American manager steps in, Debra, and soon Jack becomes an international star. He meets two other people who remember the Beatles. During a concert, Jack finally admits the songs were composed by the Beatles and ends up with Ellie.
This charming comic take on the 'Mandela Effect', in this case presenting a man in an alternate reality where the Beatles never existed, is an amusing, light and heartwarming little film, though the the range of possibilities of its concept could have been exploited more. "Yesterday" starts off nicely, presenting the hero Jack as a would-be musician who gives up on his dream, admitting to his best friend Ellie: "I think my music is something special, you think it is something special, but nobody else does". It is an effective scene, both bitter, somber and charming. It is topped by the best sequence in the film, the one where Jack manically googles the word "Beatles" on his laptop, but only gets ridiculously absurd results, such as the image of a beetle insect, or when he types in "John Paul McCartney" but only gets the image of "Pope John Paul", which is a riot. Sadly, nothing after that manages to be equally as great. The rest of the film is good, but somehow strangely ordinary, calculative and normal for such a fresh and unique concept, never leading to some especially relevant point congruent to it. The actors are all great, especially Lily James who steals almost every scene as Jack's love interest, Ellie, whereas it is a treat to simply listen a whole array of The Beatles' songs, sung here by Jack, from "Love is All You Need", through "The Long and Winding Road" up to "Help!", performed with gusto.
Grade:++
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