Alternative reality stories are intriguing because they offer mirrors to our culture, emphasizing, celebrating or mourning some facet of our society that the storyteller feels needs attention. In Yesterday, the aspect worthy of another look is music, particularly music by the Beatles. You remember, those four British lads, John, Paul, George and Ringo. Now you might not think that a rock group as legendary as the Beatles would need to be re-celebrated, yet this film posits that music as classic as good as theirs is always deserving of attention and respect and love.

Danny Boyle’s film follows screenwriter Richard Curtis’ premise (based on Jack Barth’s story idea) that after a 12-second global blackout, only struggling British singer Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) remembers the music of the Beatles. Well, mostly remembers (who can recall all the lyrics to “Eleanor Rigby”?). He continues to struggle even with the new material, but his manager Ellie (Lily James) believes in him and the songs eventually catch on, making Jack the biggest name in music. But does he deserve the attention? Is there a price to be paid for this karmic theft?

Of course there is. While the premise is fairly comic and there are laughs to be had, this is mostly a drama about a guy who feels he is a phony and is just waiting anxiously for everyone to find out. The romantic subplot that supports the story is nicely maintained; Lily James is immensely appealing as Jack’s would-be soulmate. Yet the angst in this movie threatens to overwhelm its likability and fun. The music is mostly excellent, and the familiar show business tropes are nicely parodied, especially when Ed Sheeran, as himself, tries to persuade Jack to change the title of one song to “Hey, Dude.” Perfect.

I would have preferred that the climactic reveal been handled a bit more adroitly, because I don’t believe the crowd would be as forgiving as it is shown to be. And I don’t know whether the one obvious cameo character appearance is needed; I’m not sure it added anything special. Still, this is a crowd-pleasing movie that absolutely revels in the beauty of music that was written more than half a century ago now. I also wonder how using great music from another, lesser known band (the Monkees would be my choice) would affect the tone of the story, but that’s a whole other matter. It may be gone tomorrow, so see Yesterday today. ☆ ☆ ☆. 1 August 2019.