Can we have Lily James in every rom-com?

I've read the reviews, this film is getting a love-it or hate-it reaction. First, I think a lot of the bad press comes from people judging it out of its genre. It is a romantic comedy, so those who gave it 1s and 2s (out of 10) because it was "just a love story with music", need to adjust their expectations, appropriately. Secondly, this is under-spoken, self-deprecating British humour (that I adore) but this is often baffling to American audiences (who are use to being fed broad comedy, caricatures of life - see note on Kate McKinnon, below) and this fuelled another flurry of low ratings. So, you can see where my review is going. I loved this movie. The love story was inevitable (it WAS the point of the movie). The premise was unique (and it provided a great reoccurring joke). The theme of Friendship Zone vs Romantic Interest was executed perfectly by the deep, emotional vocabulary of the performers (although, the 14-seconds-that-changed-the- world is as much of a leap as Lily James, made average with fuzzy hair, being left in the friendship zone, in any time line). Himesh Patel made a smooth transition from the Soaps to the Big Screen and his musical skills were perfect for this. Lily James brought such vulnerability, energy and strength [spoiler] dealing with unrequited love [/spoiler]. As much as I appreciate the comedic talents of Kate McKinnon, I wish she would find the real people behind her caricatures. She needs to find her dramatic chops which, I believe, are there to be discovered. But the glue for this film was the music. As with BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, I was transported to my youth when so much of this music was imbedded, word for word, note for note. [spoiler] I fully expected the ending to flip back to Jack waking in his hospital bed, having lived a dream, and now seeing Ellie with different eyes and not missing his moments, cue same ending from there on. [/spoiler] I give this film an 8 (great) out of 10. My friend gives it a 9 (just short of perfect). [RomCom around Music]

It was good without being great. I loved the boat that rocked and about time. I felt this film was missing the heart those films had. There were some lovely moments, some cool moments and some happy moments.... but it was missing that extra 5% for me. I can see why others have loved it though.

I was expecting a different movie. Speculative fantasy maybe. The premise really sold Yesterday to me. Imagine that nobody in the world but you remembers The Beatles, and now you can become a best-selling artist singing their hit songs. Guaranteed success! How would that turn out? Instead, all I got was a cheesy romantic comedy, and not well-written one either. I lost it completely when [spoiler]Ellie told Jack to abandon the one dream he's ever had to be with her, and it was supposed to be his moment for a grand gesture[/spoiler]. You'd never do that to the person you supposed to love! Jack is not an appealing leading character. He spends most of the movie sort of whining and having this aloof look on his face. His "girlfriend" is desperate and annoying, and is just not a good girlfriend on more than one occasion. His parents are dicks. Ed Sheeran's cameos were pretty cute, but no more than that. If you are okay with settling for just another mediocre romantic comedy, then you'll be okay with Yesterday. Music was the best part, duh.

So they had one interesting idea and managed to get exactly nothing out of it, besides playing lots of Beatles songs.