Jersey Boys is Clint Eastwood’s first attempt at directing a musical, and it shows in the film. Rather than deliver a lively, upbeat production, the Hollywood icon gives audiences a more documentary-like picture that lacks the proper substance it requires. While Million Dollar Baby is still Eastwood’s best work to date, that kind of noir style just does not belong in a film adaptation of a hit Broadway musical.
The movie tells the story of the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons, with lead singer Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young). Other members include songwriter Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), singer Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) and the cocky, sleazy leader of the group Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza).
Eastwood gives us a biopic of the group before, during and after it was The Four Seasons. The story opens with the group growing up in the streets of New Jersey and affiliated with the mafia. When they’re not in jail, they perform night-shows at bars and clubs, eventually working their way into the music industry.
From there, we see their successes and failures, conflicts with one another, tragedies that befall them and a series of other events that all lead up to a more optimistic conclusion. But sadly, the music itself, while fantastic and performed brilliantly by the cast, tends to be underscored and only comes in when necessary.
All in all, the film spends most of the time treading along darker material than is expected from a musical. Then again, Hollywood has not had the best success with this genre in the last decade. Despite its popularity, Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables is nevertheless a movie that bombards viewers with three hours of extreme close-ups, rapid editing and annoying songs, to the point where all it does is rip apart the source material.
Yet, the film makes the mistake of relying solely on its music and grand performances to guide it, watering the story down to a pulp, Jersey Boys definitely overshadows the soundtrack with its biography components.
In this movie, the acting is fantastic, the music great, the script high quality, yet the pacing and direction are major factors that keep it from being great. While it is no doubt a treat for viewers to see hit songs like “Sherry” and “December 1963” performed by a knockout ensemble cast, getting to these moments requires audiences to first endure a string of painfully eerie and flat out lifeless moments.
Eastwood approached this film with the mindset of delivering a biopic about the Four Seasons, in an attempt to portray the true story behind the famous band. With that said, it would have been more befitting for him to have just made a documentary.
Since this movie tries to bridge the gap between biopic and musical adaptation, it often gets lost in terms of its direction. Ninety percent of the time, the movie demonstrates bleak, noir style cinematography coupled with moments of extravagant Broadway liveliness. Though the final scene is great and plays out like any other musical curtain call sequence, it still feels out of place with the rest of the movie. Even Christopher Walken’s role as mob boss Gyp DeCarlo is condensed to a few unremarkable scenes.
The cast is perhaps the only redeeming factor in the less vibrant portions of the film. Piazza gives the best performance out of the four, even if his character is a bit cliché. Each of them take turns breaking the fourth wall as they tell the audience their side of the story, though Frankie of course gets the biggest amount of screen time.
The chemistry among the four is solid throughout, and their interpersonal conflicts with one another are more than believable. And given that three of the four also starred in the Broadway show at some point, they make it clear how comfortable they are in these roles.
All in all, Jersey Boys is a decent enough film to garner a viewing from fans of the musical and casual moviegoers alike, but it is far from greatness.
