Review of Yesterday (2019) by Romethesecondti — 26 Jul 2019

The premise of "Yesterday," a feel good movie from that master of melodrama, Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire") is that only one person in the world remembers The Beatles and their songs. Boyle hauls out the Hollywood meme that one person has knowledge that others don't, and we know that kind of knowledge is power (not to mention fun). There's "Back to the Future" (1985) and "Groundhog Day" (1993).

"Yesterday" won't achieve the iconic status of these two films, but it's clever and charming and, through most of its run time, carefully assembled. It's light stuff, rading on nostalgia, and it works. The tension of whether he'll be found out, an understated but compelling performance by Patel, along with the sheer joy of hearing (and watching) the music being re-created and presented to adoring audiences, are the strengths of "Yesterday." Yet it's not a film without flaws. The music, played by a B-list musician, doesn't rise to the level of other recent music-nostalgia films ("Bohemian Rhapsody," "Rocketman"). And the secondary characters are all one-dimensional. Still, it works.