As a director, Clint Eastwood has a pretty solid track record for making above average films that offer something new to audiences around the world, but with Jersey Boys, that all changes, he delivers what will likely be a major crowd pleaser but also delivers a film that barely connects with the audience on an emotional level.
Adapted from the Broadway musical and also from life itself, Jersey Boys chronicles the lives of four old-school New Jersey boys, Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young), Tommy Devito (Vincent Piazza), Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda), and Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen) as they come together to form the influential 1960s rock group, The Four Seasons. As with every biopic, it highlights the highs, the lows, the very lows, and even the resurrection of most of the key players involved in their story.
As is the case with most films, there were parts that I thought were good, parts that I thought were bad, and other parts that I just personally didn’t like. Here’s my breakdown of it all.
Let’s start with the good: the music, the breadth of story, and supporting characters. The music in this film is absolutely incredible and is a testament to how good The Four Seasons actually were. While the music was performed by the cast in the film, most notably by the guys who perform the show on Broadway, it nonetheless comes out beautifully and oh so catchy. The tunes certainly hit home for a lot of the older audience members, resulting in people singing and snapping along to popular tunes like “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” What makes some of these musical scenes great is the story of how they came to be or, possibly for cinematic purposes, the commentary surrounding the recording of them, especially Tommy’s reaction to “Walk Like a Man,” it generated quite a few laughs.
As for the story, I have to praise Eastwood and his screenwriters for the scope of the story they tell. They don’t seem to leave anything out about Frankie Valli story, we get the entire life from training to be a hair dresser all the way up to the Rock and roll Hall of Fame induction. For a film that’s 134 minutes long it doesn’t seem to drag too much, usually these types of films need to be longer if they’re going to cover that much of a person’s rocky life (think Lincoln).
The last of the good, I’d like to give props to Mike Doyle, who played Bob Crewe, the producer of The Four Seasons and the one who essentially made them famous. He was probably the best part of the film and provided the wisest and funnies remarks throughout the film. I also thought Christopher Walken was solid as usual and thought Joseph Russo, who played Joey Pesci, did a solid job even if he didn’t look too much like him.
Now for the part I didn’t work for me, personally. There is one aspect in particular that I didn’t expect and just didn’t work for me, and that was how the film played out more like a Broadway show then a feature film. By that, I mean rather than having narrators, the guys in the film would speak directly to the camera during certa
in scenes to explain their feelings on a situation that was happening around them. It was an attempt to make it a more fun, lighthearted film but with so many conflicts it didn’t work well for me. I understand this is an adaptation of the Broadway musical but I was hoping that Clint would take a more cinematic approach that would help give the film some bite, especially since there is a ton of drama in the film. Instead, this approach, along with the use of plenty of amateur actors in the lead roles, resulted in the film hitting an emotional plateau that remained flat for the entire film.
Now for the bad, which overrides all the good in the film for me, stems from that emotional plateau. Yes, when things were going well, I remained unmoved. When things were going bad, I still remained unmoved. Nothing that happened, no matter how good or bad they were, had any effect on me. I contribute part of this to the way the story was told and a lot of it to the acting. To make sure I’m not being overly critical, I thought back on other musicals and music biopics like Walk the Line and Les Miserables and the reason those films were good, outside just the amazing music, was that I felt something for the characters. I felt like they were engaging me even though they weren’t speaking to me (good actors), which is the exact opposite approach Jersey Boys took. They spoke directly to us yet I never felt connected or engaged with them. I do think a lot of it stems from the lack of acting experience and the more Grease-like approach, but it just didn’t work and I think a lot of people who aren’t connected to the era, like myself, will feel this way too.
Overall, Jersey Boys just didn’t do it for me. It felt like lesser Clint Eastwood taking a very Hollywood, mainstream approach to a story that could have succeeded had he found the right balancing act between his fun side and the his well-known quality dramatic side that made films like Letters From Iwa Jima and Million Dollar Baby so good. For those that grew up with The Four Seasons, like when they were actually performing music, you’ll likely really enjoy the film, but for the younger generations your best bet is to probably skip this and check out the live musical instead.
Rating: An in-depth yet emotionally flat film with excellent, sing-a-long-style tunes (5/10)
Recent Comments