Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they’re here to stay. Oh. I believe in yesterday.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will. Nor does it mean you will have the foggiest what any of this means. If that’s the case, then Danny Boyle’s latest will mean as much to you as an eight day week.

If you’re of a certain age however, then this may well be welcome trip down both memory and penny lane.

Despite all the effort he’s putting into it, Jack (Himesh Patel) just can’t seem to get the break he wants for his music career to take off.

One night, cycling in his home town of Lowestoft, there’s a blackout plunging the roads into darkness, lasting twelve seconds, causing Jack to get knocked over by a bus. Luckily for him, he doesn’t suffer any major damage, and is soon back up on his feet.

It doesn’t take him long to realise however, that the world is a slightly different place after his accident; the biggest difference being that no-one has ever heard of the legends that are the Beatles.

He thinks that the blackout has something to do with it; it didn’t just happen in his home town, it was a global phenomenon. This gives him the idea that if the world has never heard a Beatles song, then he can pass it off as his own, and finally get his music career on track. With a massive back catalogue to choose from, it looks like Jack is in for a helter skelter of a ride.

If ever there were the ultimate Brit dream team in film, Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis would probably be it. Individually they have been responsible for some of the biggest UK films in recent years, with Boyle directing the likes of Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire, and Curtis writing such classics as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill.

This collaboration however, doesn’t do either of them any favours. Everything hangs on this ‘what if’ premise, that the Fab Four, or their music, never existed. Despite it being central to the film’s plot, it is mostly ignored and certainly never questioned in any real depth. Instead, it is used as a foil to promote a flimsy love story between Patel and his love interest played by Lily James.

Audiences may know Patel best for his lengthy period in the BBC soap EastEnders as Tamwar. He also showed off great comic timing in the Channel Four comedy Damned. There are two obvious acknowledgements from his performance here: the first is that he can carry a tune; the second is that this romantic leading man role was not a good fit for him. There’s more chemistry cats and dogs than there is between Patel and James.

And although he could at least do the comic element, these duties are handed over in full to his sidekick Rocky, played by Joel Fry, who gets all the laughs.

The film then leans far too heavily on both the music of the Beatles, and the appearance of Ed Sheeran. And although Sheeran’s part is entertaining enough, the fact that his music is used next to that of the Beatles, means the film somehow puts them on the same level, deliberately or not, which is troubling on a number of levels.

On paper, Boyle and Curtis would be the perfect fit, and yet this union is a wreck; Boyle’s direction is somewhat pedestrian, relying on the occasional jaunty angle to spice things up a bit, with Curtis’ script lacking any direction of its own, as well as missing his trademark humour.

If this collaboration were an album, it would definitely be a bootleg by a second rate covers band, struggling to find both a rhythm and a voice to call its own.