The trailer:
Interesting original thought exercise (as is any "what if?" Beatles scenario), but pretty much everything else was terrible. This was made for Beatle fanatics like me who can't resist taking the bait (tbh I can't believe I held out watching it this long.)
My thoughts:
Before even making it to the “gets hit by a bus and The Beatles are erased from history” part it already was the most implausible movie ever: 1. The main character, Jack, works in like a Home Depot and the manager offers him full-time because “the customers like you”. What? Are customers at HD seeking out the manager to tell them how much they like a worker? Really? 2. How does an unsuccessful non-profitable singer have a “real” manager who’s NOT his girlfriend?
Speaking of the girl, Ellie - she insists on being his manager when he's a nobody, but when he's making the leap to become the biggest star in the world she says "nah, Imma stick with being a school teacher"?
I don't understand the idea re: if The Beatles didn't exist then neither would Coca-Cola or cigarettes? What?
Jack, played by a guy who looks like a chubby Russell Brand, was remarkably overly serious and unfunny. His constant bafflement isn't even funny. At 119 minutes (grrrrr), maybe the most-sustained unfunny movie portrayal ever.
Can movie people make one goddam movie without stuffing in a romantic slant? Come the fuck on, movie people.
LOVED the dad! Everything he said was funny.
Also loved all the Ed Sheeran stuff! I may have leaned more into him being a cartoonish pretentious douche, but I really liked him whenever he popped up.
The scene when he's trying to play Let it Be for his parents but they keep getting distracted is fantastic. Maybe THAT should have been the movie - a guy has all the songs, but nobody cares.
One thing this movie did prove is that as incredible as the songs themselves are, when they're not in the hands of the actual Beatles they're not anywhere near as good. There's a magical electricity when they play together, which is simply impossible to recreate.
He quit teaching to...work at Home Depot? What?
He's a lone singer-songwriter who mostly plays acoustic but all of a sudden he shows up with a full band playing Help! like they're Blink-182? And the crowd goes apeshit? What?
It's nice to see him meet John Lennon just for the fantasy of knowing he's alive, but why would he sit down with a total stranger and have some deep chat? I know we think of Lennon as a Svengali but at age 78, never having been a public figure, would he really be down for "hey come on in and drink my tea while I drop truth bombs on you!"?
It's revealed that Lennon worked as a sailor his whole life, yet he somehow lives in this fucking house:
What? Was he a goddam Rear Admiral? Or Cap'n Crunch?
Kate McKinnon was funny but WAY too much.
About halfway through I started wondering about Gavin getting screwed over - a sweet guy who really gave Jack his start and he seems to be discarded...until....Ellie starts dating him? So is he then a villain?
Beatles songs sound simple but are famously complicated, tricky chords to play, yet this guy has no problem knowing and remembering all of them? They make a big deal of him trying to remember the words to Eleanor Rigby but he has no problem nailing the music for Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite? WHICH HE FOR SOME REASON RECORDED? Hmm.
The big scene when Rocky gives that touching monologue before opening the door to lead Jack onstage where a huge crowd is waiting? I 100% knew it'd be the wrong door, but his recovering with "let's continue on this journey together" got a legit LOL.
The big finale at Wembley Stadium: he reveals to the world that he didn't write these songs, that four men named John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr did and...the crowd thinks for a minute, then cheers? Everybody collectively shrugs, "okay", and everything just goes back to how it was before? Really? No followup questions, no media asking "what the fuck?" Four men named John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison (who, unlike John whose anonymity would've kept him alive, may still have died of cancer in 2001), and Ringo Starr didn't show up with a few questions? The whole movie just...ends?
Look, Richard Curtis doesn't owe us anything. He gave us Blackadder, The Vicar of Dibley, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Notting Hill, Pirate Radio and Red Nose Day (!), I just wish that after starting out with such an interesting premise he'd put in more thought to make it actually interesting/semi-plausible.
Here's the Let it Be scene I mentioned. You're welcome!
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