Yesterday (2019)

Entertaining fantasy

It's an entertaining fantasy about an unsuccessful singer who wakes up in a world without Beatles, Coca-Cola, and cigarettes, and becomes rich and famous using Beatles songs.

The main part of the story is the developing romance between the singer and his "manager" and friend. Spoiler: she's been in love with him the whole time and he hasn't noticed, which is made even more ridiculous since the actress who plays her, Lily James, is extremely attractive, and he's a sort of ordinary looking guy who works in a warehouse.

The usual Richard Curtis cliches are used which he also used in Four Weddings, Notting Hill, and Love Actually: the woman confessing her love to the man; the montage of charming children at the end; the "interesting" and "ditzy" friends of the main characters, etc. Etc. But it doesn't really set out to be taken seriously anyway.

I suppose the idea to make a film of Beatles songs came before the plot.

Full marks to Ed Sheeran for letting the film makers make fun of him (he changes "Hey Jude" into "Hey Dude" to make it more modern).

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