First Take: Yesterday- just 3 people watched this film in their biggest screen...

SYNOPSIS: A struggling musician realises he’s the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate timeline where they never existed.

Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis are two titans of the British film industry- between the pair of them is a countless list of classics and a Bond film that very nearly happened. So putting them together? It was a dream film. What a shame to see this combination put out a film that’s decent, but nothing more.

Boyle directs this film with the same flair that he’s always had- visually, it looks stunning, there’s no question about it. But with Curtis’ script, this combination of minds just doesn’t work, as the second half of the film gets a little too safe for its own good, reverting to the archetypical critique of the music industry. That isn’t to say that the 1 hour 56 minutes drag though, far from it, but there are some rookie errors in this film- especially if you know what Wembley Stadium is supposed to look like… yes, I seen them using bits shot at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. It’s shot really well by Christopher Ross, and once again, Daniel Pemberton provides an incredible score- recorded at Abbey Road itself believe it or not.

With the performances, this is the first big movie for Himesh Patel, best known to British TV viewers as Tamwar Masood in EastEnders- he is fantastic in this film, and pairing him up with Lily James, someone who has yet to put in work that isn’t a disappointment, was a brilliant bit of casting. Providing the support is a big cast that includes Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kate McKinnon, James Corden, and Ed Sheeran (yes, really) amongst others- but this film arguably belongs to Patel and James, as they are able to carry this one to a pretty decent final product.

THE VERDICT

It’s far fetched, and a bit of a patchy film at times, but Yesterday is still pretty good even with the issues we’ve got here. For a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, it does the job, but that combination of Boyle and Curtis just simply doesn’t work.

RATING: 3/5