Not perfect, but perfectly charming

Rating: 8/10 (10 August 2019)

For the less than Jedi Nerd-level Beatles fans, this is a treat. Himesh Patel sings and plays well and with lots of heart. With two exceptions, the songs are near-original-quality covers of the comfortable, famous originals.
It's wrapped in a love story that feels heartfelt and charming, and follows the classic formula: boy grows up with girl, in love with each other but too shy to say it; boy grows into man whose closest friend is the girl-turned-woman who _almost_ leaves as he gets rich and famous and more distant from her; man realises that he's going to lose the woman (to his childhood best male friend) and it nearly drives him insane before he gets her back. One of the two variations on the original songs, _Help_, is a frenzied, nearly acid/hard rock primal scream for help, directed to his love. (The contemporary-to-us crowd, of us crowd, of course, eat it up.)
About the second variation on an original song, I will just say that it reminds anyone in a creative field why even the most well-meaning non-creatives (including managers) should have their input sharply curtailed. A one-word change takes the song from a heartfelt, nearly spiritual song of encouragement into a parody of itself. While the substituted word was likely in the Beatles' individual vocabularies, I don't recall it ever being used in their songs. As a plot device helping to illustrate two of the relationships involved, though, it's brilliant.
Listening to the (original) Beatles' albums in chronological order leads the listener to appreciate the maturing, pain-and-happiness roller-coaster of the writers' (mostly John's and Paul's) lives. We lose that in the movie; Jack is less concerned with (and has far less time to) presenting a continuous arc than simply "writing" and arranging enough songs to meet commitments. That's sad to the purist but, stepping back a bit, should be entirely understandable as an illustration of Jack being 'Under Pressure' (did Queen exist in the alternate timeline? Do we care?)
What we _do_ care about, in the end, is Jack and Ellie and finding how, exactly life works out. It turns out you really _can_ "get by with a little help from (your) friends".
So why not 9/ or 10/10? Really only two dings grated on me: the portrayal of Jack's parents, and one or two of the other supporting characters who regularly jerked me out of the magic. It is difficult to imagine a talented, intelligent young man growing up, being able to coherently express himself and coherently socialise, with that sort of upbringing. Yes, they mean well, and yes, they obviously love him; what isn't at all obvious is how he managed not to need a decade or two of psychotherapy. Hopefully, with his (in-story) earnings, he'd avail himself of help if it was needed.
Jack was a 9.5 out of 10. Ellie was a 9.5 out of 10, including two bonus points for beyond-saintly patience. More of them, please!