Yesterday [DVD]

In Yesterday, The audience sees various realities bundled in a way that recalls similar alternate universes as in It's A Wonderful Life. But in this movie, the audience is teased that reality is not so real after all. Himesh Patel is a singer songwriter who has spent years trying to hit it big. He is a talented singer but he is close to quitting until the Impossible happens. He is shifted from one universe to another in a manner that is not much different from the means Mark Twain used to relocate temporally his Connecticut Yankee to the court of King Arthur. With Patel. called Jack Malik, a bit of scientific plausibility is inserted. A world wide failure of electricity lingers for twelve seconds, causing a truck to hit Jack and when he wakes up, he is no longer in his base reality; he is is a universe where the Beatles have never existed. It is just as well that the script does not logically follow through on such an event. Twelve seconds is more than enough time for planes to fall out of the sky and car accidents in the millions. Further, the script wisely ignores what happened to the Jack Malik who must have been transported from the non-Beatle reality to one where the Beatles were famous. Finally, the script glosses over a few other individuals who similarly made the temporal transition and well know the Beatles. Yesterday is meant as a romantic fantasy, not as a musical version of the television series Sliders. Himesh Patel is totally convincing as one who has come to a moral cross roads. Should he pass off the songs of the Beatles as his own or should he have to account for them as the true result of inter-dimensional shifting? Some critics label Jack Malik as an unlikable plagiarist who takes advantage of a unique opportunity for wealth and fame. However, he remains likable throughout. The audience is treated to Patel's ability to take the tonal inflections of Sir Paul McCartney and infuse them with his own unique style. The unifying theme of the movie does not emerge until near the end when Jack Malik meets one of the other dimensional travelers who tells him that Jack should not worry about the infringing of copyright laws of an alternate reality. Rather, in a world bereft of the Beatles, that world would be much the poorer. Thus, beauty has a right to exist and it is the Jack Maliks of all universes to provide that beauty. Yesterday deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.EDIT Added 11/19/2019Since I submitted my original review, I have since read various other reviews. Most of them have negatively harped on what the reviewers saw as violations of logic and their contextual knowledge of the Beatles gained from decades of listening to their music. Typical of their objections include the following:1) Ellie would never have fallen in love with Jack in the first place2) Jack released his versions of dozens of Beatle songs in a haphazard manner that did not do justice to the thematic development of the Beatles from 1963 to 19703) The singing/song writing talent of Jack Malik, while reasonably competent, was far less than the original Beatles and would likely not have sold in Jack's non-Beatle reality4) The "silly love songs" of the early Beatles sold well but only in the temporal context in which the Beatles released them. Thus, these songs would not have resonated in Jack's new realityWhat such criticisms suggest is that Director Danny Boyle was unaware of their existence. I suggest that he was aware and chose to ignore them. It is crucial to remember Boyle was interested in a fantasy and not a gritty realistic drama framed by music. Further, current critics frame their comments inj a context garnered over decades. The audiences of the non-Beatle reality did not have this context. Jack Malik simply unleashed his torrent of Beatle songs such that the entire universe of potential fans reacted as much did the fans of the reality from which Jack emerged. this reaction was unfettered joy. Consider a few key scenes when Jack's music was heard the first time. Jack played "Yesterday" for Ellie and a few friends. They were stunned. Jack went of national tv and in a deleted scene (why it was deleted I'll never know) supposedly played a brand new "Something" to a lovely Anna de Armas. Then there was the impromptu "battle of the songs" scene in which Ed Sheerin played a reasonably competent song about penguins while Jack blew him out of the water with "The Long Winding Road." In all three cases the stunned reactions of all concerned very likely equaled the joy felt by original listeners decades ago. So when the two other dimensional travelers told Jack that beauty needs no rationale for its existence, this leads us to the long and winding road of love for beauty that cares only for welcoming ears to appreciate.Yesterday as a movie is held together by the stringing together of three related scenes, each of which suggests a showing off or a competition of a Beatle song with someone who does not know of it. The first is when Jack plays "Yesterday" to Ellie and her friends who are stunned by the haunting beauty of the lyrics. Though they joke about the power of the song no one doubts its impact. The second is the Battle of the Songs between Jack and Ed Sheeran. It is here the director sets out a number of cross purpose subtexts. This competition is supposed to be a friendly wager between two evenly matched song writers. The problem is is that both Jack and Ed bring in considerable emotional baggage. Ed is clearly jealous of the rising talent posed by Jack. Ed thinks he can win in an impromptu match of ten minutes of songwriting. He in fact turns out a well composed lyric of two penguins who cannot decide between settling a choice of hope or love. Oddly enough this penguin song forms a thematic subtext between the hope of Jack to become the next global superstar and the love of Ed for music even if his goal is the more modest one of besting an opponent. Ed has no idea of the humbling he will experience right in front of his closest friends. Jack's baggage is far weightier than Ed's. Jack is a fraud and the movie audience has knowledge lacking the competition audience. The movie audience is more willing to overlook such temporal music plagiary because Jack is a decent sort who cannot resist the once in a lifetime opportunity to go from a struggling nobody to a lionized somebody. The scruffy bearded dude and the middle aged woman function as incipient twin consciences struggling to emerge to confront Jack, a meeting which does occur later on. When Jack sings "The Long Winding Road" his version is a heart-stopping rendition that is as good as anything Sir Paul ever wrote or sang. Here, Jack has only a piano which results in a simplicity of beauty that the original lacked. But a nagging question emerges. Why would Jack choose one of the very best of the Beatles? This was clearly a case of overkill. He could just as easily have sung nearly any other Beatle song. Jack suffers a bit of a guilty conscience when he lamely adds that this effort was a bit complex. Ed gracefully admits Jack was the superior talent. Jack's persona as the good guy suffers a bit in this scene even as the audience admires Ed for his self-effacing admission. The third related scene is the deleted scene in which Jack has to make up a song on the spot just as he did earlier with Ed Sheeran. The dynamics of both scenes are very nearly identical. The audience in the television studio was similar to the audience of Ed's friends earlier. Jack's rendition of "Something" was like that of "The Long Winding Road." Both were reduced versions sung with only one musical accompaniment, such that simplicity of delivery heightened the effect. These three scenes enabled the audience watching the movie to flit in and out of the audience actually hearing Jack sing live so that the incremental result was one of astonishment to hear Beatle music involve a new generation of fans..

Interesting!

This movie is one of the best! Everybody should watch it!

We will watch it again.

What a cute premise! Beatles music is part of our histories. What if we had never heard it? Never danced to it? Never memorized lyrics? Never had memories tied to it?Cute story. Happy ending. My kind of feel good film.

Very entertaining!

I really enjoyed this film. Lily James and Patel did a great job in their roles. Great original tribute to the Beetles. Great film production as usual from Boyle; lot of dry British humor.

Love the movie. I don't know what else to write, but love the movie and music

The film really cheered me up; the catchiness of Lennon & McCartney’s writing is memorable, even after 50 years!

The DVD came from USA and will not play in a UK machine. Can’t understand why a UK resident was sent a DVD that will not play here as it from a different region.

Not compatible to our DVD player waste of money

The Digital Copy, which was a larger reason for me to buy this BlueRay, is useless in Canada unless you are committed to Google Play, which I am not. I want a true download or other options such as iTunes where I can then seamlessly load and watch ono my iPhone or iPad or Apple TV. As it stands you cannot do so with the Google Play redemption. It is also deceitful of Universal that this is not disclosed until you use the code, meaning you are then locked in to whatever "Universal" gives you.

A movie for all ages- some good actors on scene to help the story stick together in a sort of tacky way - not thoroughly glued together though. Some parts were down right boring.Plot & Intention: It is a kind of quirky parallel universe situation- not meant to be believable or deep; just entertaining- however, it Jack got a bit self indulgent and too soppy unnecessarily and too many times. Hey, that is the way I see it... have to say when it mattered it was done really well; like at the end!Would I watch it again? - not likely but my wife and grandson would! Value for money is about $10 cdn.