Go Watch 'Yesterday' Today!

So I’m off out with Zoë, the love of my life, to the cinema in Nottingham. We've chosen to see Yesterday, a film that’s already been out about a month. That’s just long enough for us to have read, watched, and listened to enough reviews to make us think that it’s worth giving it a go. Some friends went when it was first released, and one of them tells us that her husband had a tear in his eye at some points and was laughing out loud at other points. They encourage us to go see it and so here we are at the Nottingham Showcase Cinema.

We enter through the glass doors into the the cinema lobby. It is characterless with the main focus of attention being the centrally placed coke, popcorn, and ices stand. We buy the obligatory popcorn and I order a regular-sized, regular coke. I’m a bit miffed that they don’t give me the coke, but just give me an empty paper cup and top. The young man behind the counter is pleasant but says nothing to me as I take the empty cup and top. I ask him, “Where’s the coke?” and he points to a small bank of drinks dispensers by the entrance to the actual film theatres, or screens as they are now called. I put my glasses on to read the machine and despite my best efforts, finish up by mistake with a mixture of regular and cherry coke. Not bad actually. I make a mental note to buy a bottle of coke and a bottle of cherry coke (one diet, one not) to mix around with at leisure at home, maybe with a shot of whiskey or rum.

The usher scans our Q Code tickets and directs us to Screen Eight. It’s a small theatre with big seats. Seats that recline, tip, and lift your legs. They all make noises like the sound of passing wind, and people giggle as they position and reposition themselves ready for the film to start. I expect to sleep a little during the film and position myself accordingly. It’s comforting to hear the familiar Pearl and Dean music as the adverts for local businesses hit the screen.

Pearl and Dean Ident

That music sting before the adverts start remains the same down the years, even though the visuals, the graphics, have changed slightly over time. It indicates that the show is about to start and by show I mean the adverts for products and services followed by film trailers, and then the feature film. I’m not sure why we still call them "feature" films, as most shows now no longer have a supporting movie. I used to enjoy the supporting movies, often comedic shorts.

I’m already halfway down my coke when Yesterday finally starts. I suddenly realise that the main actor is the guy that played Tanwar in the long running BBC soap opera Eastenders.

It’s Himesh Patel and he’s a great actor. He’s a British actor that, on the evidence of his portrayal of Jack Malik in Yesterday, is destined for big things. He’s great at low key. That’s not to say there aren’t some exciting elements to Yesterday, as there certainly are, but it’s the low key delivery that Himesh has got mastery of and that works so well with co-star and love interest Lily James.

This Danny Boyle directed Working Title film with a script by Richard Curtis punches all the right romcom buttons. It’s built around the premise that failing singer songwriter, Jack Malik, is not off his bike by a bus during a worldwide power cut, only to wake up in hospital minus two front teeth into a world where no one has ever heard of The Beatles or their music. Jack sees this as a way to success, and sets about performing and recording as many of The Beatles songs as he can remember. His career blossoms as his love life wilts. He has to take drastic steps to regain the love of the girl from primary school who always believed in him as a singer and as a person.

After a fairly slow start, the film gets going and with appearances from Ed Sheeran and James Corden. It’s the Brits at their romantic comedy best.

The music throughout the film is really good. The songs we already know are brilliant, but brilliant songs, even by Lennon and McCartney, can be mutilated. Here ,they are done really well, with Patel giving outstanding alternative performances of a number of Beatles classics. Sheeran, too, comes over well. As the worldwide superstar, he is confronted with an unknown British Asian young man who writes songs even better than he does.

Ed Sheeran and Himesh Patel talking about making the film 'Yesterday.'

The film is pretty standard fair for screenwriter Richard Curtis; but it is perhaps a new departure for Danny Boyle who takes to the romcon genre like a duck to water, delivering a film that’s perhaps not a great work of art, but is gentle and funny. Well worth the price of a cinema ticket. I never dropped off to sleep once during the film, and Zoë and I held hands as we walked back to the car. It’s that kind of film. Go see it!