I've a feeling Toto might not be able to tour in Kansas anymore. 75+

Rating: 8/10 (5 July 2019)

As someone who regards The Beatles as the greatest pop-rock act of all time, the prospect of seeing a film which imagined a world in which they didn't exist but one in which somebody else gets to take the credit for their music was one which I found to be...appealing. Maybe there are some Beatles fans who feel the opposite way to me? In any case, I enjoyed this amusing film and would suggest that it would mostly appeal to people who are fans of romcoms and also fans of The Beatles, who don't take umbrage at other acts singing their songs. If you are unfamiliar with The Beatles, then, I'd say that this film will mostly be conceptual humour to you, as the jokes won't make sense many times if you don't know the band's lyrics or status in popular music.
The high-concept premise of the film has Jack Malik (played by Himesh Patel) as a wannabe singer-songwriter, who has an attractive manager in Ellie Appleton (played by Lily James) who believes in his talent. Jack regards Ellie as a friend and is oblivious to her romantic feelings for him. Jack's music 'career' is going nowhere, fast and he is ready to give up on his dream. As to be expected, cliché of clichés, a narrative event intervenes to turn things around. Having read a synopsis of the plot somewhere, I was expecting the kind of scenario found in the film"The wizard of Oz".
As a result of a global 'weather' event, Jack is injured and wakes up in hospital to find that his Beatles allusions are being met with incomprehension (as such weather events are wont to do). Having proved to his own intellectual satisfaction later on that, yes, The Beatles are no longer a thing in his world, he is put into a very interesting position...he knows a lot of their music...what should he do with that knowledge?
After putting out some Beatles' songs in the public domain - not attributed to them, of course - Jack finds himself in the orbit of the non-fictional singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran (played by himself). Some reviews of this film note that Sheeran's own story parallels that of Jack's, in some ways (Himesh Patel would seem an unlikely choice to be the star in this kind of film). Jack finds himself in a position, subsequently, to try and achieve global stardom. A lot of amusing scenes are to be had with Jack's wannabe American manager, Debra Hammer (played by Kate McKinnon), who is...blunt (to put it kindly!).
Early on in the film, when Jack plays Beatles' songs before a crowd, there is indifference. This state of affairs isn't really explored as a possibility. Being a fan of The Beatles' music would lend itself to the view that this band's music is transcendent and universally "great". I would put myself in the position of most of the world's citizens in "Yesterday" as far Ed Sheeran goes. I can't say that I know the names of any of his songs although I could get lucky and be able to pick a song on the radio as being one of his...probably just the one song. What pushed my review of this film from 75/100 to 75+/100 (and hence receive a bump in my score from 7 stars out of 10 stars on this site to 8 stars...I don't round up otherwise) was hearing perhaps my favourite Beatles' song in its entirety during the closing credits. Looking behind me, I noticed that people were walking out of the cinema at this point and by the end of the song it was just me there, basically. I did find that sad, really. I'm normally one to stick around for the closing credits in any case (sometimes there are Easter eggs in them!). This experience maybe reflects on the premise of the film about the stature of The Beatles. Speaking of which, it did seem to me that their music was (or had) disappeared from commercial radio ("Classic Hits" stations perhaps moving onto the next decade of music, as they did with the likes of Elvis Presley et al.). It's my impression that the TV documentary series "The Beatles anthology" revived their fortunes in this respect. That series saw the release of a 'new' song which I regarded as one of my favouring Beatles' songs ever, "Real love".
Whilst the high-concept of this film was a drawcard for me, I don't think that the authors/writer of this story (including Richard Curtis, who wrote the screenplay for the hit film "Four weddings and a funeral" which I enjoyed) have fully understood the ramifications of this concept. For instance, in the world in which Jack finds himself now, trying to attribute ownership of 'Jack's songs' to The Beatles could have the following consequences: Jack being viewed as insane or Jack as making the ultimate "concept album". The comedy might not flow from the first possibility but having thought of it afterwards, the latter possibility is something that I wish the authors/writer had thought to canvas! Also, for the film's dénouement, I did think that Jack might give Ed a gift, which would put Ed in an interesting position too! Basically, one issue that I have with this film was that it raises more questions than anything.
Now, to aspects of this film that I enjoyed:
* There are two people who form a 'strange couple' later on in the film, who Jack meets after a performance, I think. It wasn't clear to me how that would go, but I like what they did with this.
* One unexpected character is visited by Jack. Not sure how others will feel about this but it worked for me. Again, how does this relate to the film's concept?
* Amusing product placement-alternate reality facts.
* Liked impact on Sheeran of Jack's 'genius'.
* The trailer for this film seemed to have a scene which I didn't see in the film itself, namely, where Jack 'spontaneously' writes a song on a talk show and sings it to a female guest.
I've reviewed "The Beatles: Eight days a week - The touring years" here.