Yesterday

Director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and screenwriter Richard Curtis (Love Actually) have divergent cinematic sensibilities, but they meld well enough in this bittersweet, slightly wacky musical fantasy rom-com.

There was too much Richard Curtis and not enough Danny Boyle in this case. I didn't feel like it was a melding of their voices that went particularly well.

It's a chocolate egg of a film: sweet and satisfying enough to distract you from the fact it's completely hollow inside.

Yesterday is ultimately a romantic comedy, but a conceptually complex one, built on a peculiarly reactionary framework of private life and a culturally conservative pop classicism.

What would the world be like today if The Beatles had never existed? Spend a few moments musing on that. If you do, I guarantee that you'll come up with something more interesting than anything in [Yesterday].

Fuelled by the engaging chemistry of its leads and the unflagging wonderment of the music, it zips along. But it can never quite reach escape velocity from the weight of its silliness.

Ironically, Yesterday focusses on a man who plagiarises one of the most iconic back catalogues in the history of modern music, while Curtis seems equally happy to continue doing the same to his own.

Yesterday has the right amount of clever ideas, humor, and musical moments to dance along from beat to beat.

It's an endearing high-concept fantasy, even though the premise doesn't bear a ton of scrutiny.

Boyle does have two fun leads in Patel and James, though, and a wonderful musical accompaniment, even if those songs are performed by Jack and not the Fab Four.