JERSEY BOYS opens with a shot of Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza) casually walking across a mean street in Jersey to address us – the audience. His cool confidence and smug demeanor is our first indication that these boys that we’ll meet are from the wrong side of the tracks. Watching Tommy and his tag-along buddy in crime Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young) attempt to rise out of the immoral Jersey shadow to a life of fame and fortune thanks to some catchy tunes isn’t necessarily the feel-good, entertaining story that you would expect from a film based on an uplifting, fun-loving pop quartet. As Valli and the gang later learn, you can’t always escape your past. Which is quite fitting since its director seems stuck in his tired and traditional ways as well.
Clint Eastwood’s resume shows that the director is quite comfortable in more dramatic territory. It’s no wonder than that JERSEY BOYS feels much heavier than it should be. Though the songs feel lighthearted and fun, the film almost completely resists the light much like cinematographer’s drab almost black and white photography. Right from the onset, a lack of energy is instantly felt and is a mood that is maintained through the entire film. Static camerawork, overlong scenes, and muddled editing emphasize the fact that Eastwood was the wrong man to lead this ambitious project. His attempt at creating an engaging drama with memorable songs sprinkled in feels more like a melodramatic tv movie with the memorable songs feeling more like an afterthought. Although the stage production might be popular across many age groups, I doubt that the film will attract the standing ovations that the live performances have garnered since the Broadway musical premiered in 2005. Well… aside from a completely out of place musical number during the credits that tries to desperately leave the audience with a toe-tapping finale.
What fans will gravitate towards is the inclusion of many veteran Broadway actors in starring roles. Their presence and singing ability is the one redeeming element of the film. John Lloyd Young delivers an uncanny Valli impression. The fact that his singing was performed in-camera is doubly applause-worthy. However it’s Vincent Piazza who steals many of the scenes as the real leader pulling the strings behind The Four Seasons. His intensity and gravitas on and off the stage lights up the screen even if he is forced to share the spotlight with many, many characters as more gangsters, producers, and fast talking gals gather along their road to fame. As the film trudges along, its missteps seem all the more apparent during the long journey out of Jersey. The overall weight of all of the characters and their respected storylines seem too much for the film to handle. Early on we’re introduced to Valli’s wife in a dynamic scene where the two of them go to a pizza parlor – “You know it’s a good place since they don’t sell it by the slice,” as she comically muses – but the character is left to be just a cardboard character later on as the script kicks her to the curb in favor of the drama between The Four Seasons. Later on, a death that should carry far more weight barely leaves an emotional weight on the audience due to a lack of care that was put into their storyline. JERSEY BOYS – both the film and the characters – feels rather insular in that they seem to ignore many of the characters and the political climate that vie for attention around them.
The film begins with a title on the screen that tells us the location and that the film is set in 1951. From then on the audience is left guessing how much time has passed between recordings, fights, and affairs. It’s not that we aren’t given some context clues, mainly thanks to the costume departments and Erich Bergen’s facial hair. But often it’s hard to decipher if four months have passed, four seasons, or four years. In a jarring sequence of events a little after the halfway mark, the film flashes forward quite a few years into the future right before it flashes back 2 years (for the first and only time in the 2 hr and 15 min. film mind you) showing the events that led back to the Ed Sullivan show. . . which we were just introduced to. Why this technique is used other than to create some form of drama that had previously been missing is beyond me. Poor lapses in time such as this may have been ignored if it weren’t for the film making its lengthy stay so apparent.
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons had many hits over the years and their importance within the music industry is without question. Eastwood may have had good intentions in attempting to translate the hit musical that tells their story for the big-screen. However, without any spark, emotion, or genuine drama, the film never lives up to the potential that the project had even before a film was even announced. Biopics are a-dime-a-dozen these days and it takes more than an iconic character to get the audience to sing a film’s tune. As Valli might so angelically sing of the way his story is told… “Ain’t That a Shame.”
2.5 out of 5
