Good Ol' Freda

Pure joy for Beatles fans and, one guesses, charming enough to seduce some viewers who wouldn't mind never hearing "She Loves You" ever again.

The sweet-faced Kelly is a lovely and humble storyteller, and her enduring affection for John, Paul, George and “Richie” is palpable.

Although the filmmakers apparently wanted to focus on the Beatles, the movie's strongest moments are about Freda herself.

Truth is, only hard-core fans of the Fab Four — granted, that’s a lot of people — will find themselves enthralled by this memo-by-memo account of the woman who spent 10 years handling the Liverpool lads’ mail. Others may be only mildly interested.

White's film is a love letter not just to Kelly and the Beatles, but also to postwar working-class Liverpool.

While Good Ol’ Freda will surely fascinate hardcore Beatles fans, there simply isn’t a feature-length story here.

The impression left is that of a movie bending over backward to not let its subject tell her life story.