Jersey Boys

I saw the stage play 27x in Chicago and 1x on Broadway. I was fully prepared to hate The movie. But, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's not easy to take a stage production and make a good movie. Some reviewers say it started out slow but so did the musical. Jeez, you have to get the beginning of their story! Eastwood kept the same premise by letting each member tell their story...you know there's each person's perception and then there's the real story. You can watch this movie and tap your feet and clap with the music. There was no one behind me so I got up and danced in my seat a couple times!! There was applause a few times in the theater just like at a stage production. There were a few things Clint changed that I wish he had left alone. There were a few things he expounded upon that I enjoyed. I will be going back over and over and over again. This is a good time to be had by all. I'd like to slap some professional critics who panned it. They are way off base.

Greetings again from the darkness. Two upfront disclosures are in order. I have never seen the mega-smash Broadway show, and I've always been a huge fan of The Four Seasons' music. These are pertinent because they impact one's reaction to the film version.

Director Clint Eastwood knew immediately he wanted to bring the Broadway show to the movies. In fact, his decision to cast 3 of the 4 main stage actors proved crucial in this successful transition. The rags-to-riches story of four guys from New Jersey is not only true, but it's believable because they scrap and battle just like we would expect. The mob ties are on full display, as is the struggle to maintain any semblance of normal family life while on the rocket ship to stardom.

John Lloyd Young is spectacular as the great Frankie Valli. While I fully anticipated cringing during the songs, his voice never once faltered. He is clearly the main reason the Broadway show (he won a Tony award) and the movie work. Erich Bergen plays songwriter Bob Gaudio and Michael Lomenda plays bassist Nick Massi ... both are solid. The only crack was in the casting of Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito. Piazza is well known from "Boardwalk Empire", but he is just a bit too slick as the guy who scammed the other band members, digging a massive hole of debt - mostly to a mob loan shark named Norm Waxman (played by Donnie Kehr in an excellent performance).

Other support work is provided by Mike Doyle as record producer and all-around flamboyant guy, Bob Crewe; Renee Marino starts strong as Mary (Frankie's future wife) but is given little to do as the story progresses; Joseph Russo captures the quirks of a young Joe Pesci, who introduces Gaudio to the band; and the always entertaining Christopher Walken slightly underplays local made guy Gyp DeCarlo who is instrumental in protecting Frankie in those early years. It should also be noted that the band's accountant is played by Barry Livingston, who you might remember as Ernie from "My Three Son's".

Eastwood is now 84 years old and he wisely takes a pretty conventional route with the film version. In fact, the argument could be made that taming the language could have resulted in a PG-13 rating, making it more accessible to families. It doesn't have the edge that most R movies possess. This movie has not been popular with critics and it's probably because of this relatively safe approach to an entertaining and fun story. It's not cutting edge cinema, but if you enjoy the music, you will enjoy the movie.

It was not my call to see this movie but so glad I went along for the ride! It has at least a little something for everyone and a LOT for Frankie Valli fans. Granted, the narration is a little distracting at first, but you quickly get so into the story and the characters; the good times and the bad, that you adapt to it quickly. I thought I was tired of their music but I couldn't get enough of it. After several of the songs, the entire audience clapped as though we were at the performance portrayed in the movie. Eastwood knows what moves us, what makes us laugh and how to get us on our feet. He delivers it all big time. Seriously, what more do you want from a movie?

3 out of 4 stars.

I was really excited for this movie. I saw the play in Chicago about 5 years ago and loved it. Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite directors and I thought "Jersey Boys" would be one of my favorite films of this year, but I was disappointed by Eastwood's adaptation of the hit Broadway play. Maybe I set my expectations too high. It's hard not to compare it to the play.

The acting is top notch (particularly John Lloyd Young, who won a Tony for the play), the sets are authentic, and the music is great. However, I felt Eastwood decided to add more talking moments and put the music to the side. The music becomes more background noise and not the driving force of the film. The film becomes more of a standard music biopic than the musical on Broadway. I understand why they made some of the choices and some of them work very well, but I would have liked to have seen more musical moments.

A lot of time is placed on the exposition and I thought it kind of slowed the film down. The actors break the fourth wall throughout the film, but I don't think Eastwood's style worked as well with it. Films that break the fourth wall and talk directly to the camera (like Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" or Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas) have a particular energy that drives the film. Eastwood, though, has a slower and more patient style and I'm not sure if breaking the fourth wall always went well with the film. The actors are good enough to make it work though.

The movie is at its best when the music comes to the forefront. Eastwood does a good job of showing the fun the band has creating music and the audiences' reaction to the music. It shows the power of their music. One of my favorite moments is when the band plays "Cry for Me" for the first time. It's music being created so naturally and shows why Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons are great. Other great song moments include "My Eyes Adored You" and the tear jerking rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You."

Eastwood's "Jersey Boys" has its faults, but the sheer power of the music and the acting makes it a treat worth seeing.

"Four guys under a street lamp, when it was all still ahead of us, the first time we made that sound — our sound." Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young)

It's next to impossible to compare director Clint Eastwood's entertaining Jersey Boys with the popular juke-box stage hit without feeling that the live production is superior. It could be using some of the stage cast, including the excellent John Lloyd Young as Frankie, highlights the electricity of physical presence over the celluloid mimicry. Or maybe because it seemed like a fuller musical on stage, with complete songs and less family squabbling. Or maybe because Christopher Walken's mobster, Gyp DeCarlo, is underplayed.

But more to the point, this film is a story of rags to riches with the speed bumps large and disorientations many despite the transcendence of the music (Sherry Baby and Walk Like a Man are only two of the memorable hits by this unusually gifted group). Eastwood spends considerable opening capital on the home life of the Jersey boys with the overdone Sopranos accent and run-ins with local cops to the exclusion of the actual development of their famous songs.

With the emergence of the Four Seasons, the musical becomes vibrant. Eastwood deftly weaves the songs into the narrative without bringing attention to just the songs. Somehow after the death of Valli's beloved but troubled daughter, My Eyes Adored You fits the distancing that fame brought to the relationship and the sadness of the loss. As Frankie moves into performances without his original group in order to pay off mob debt for his partner, Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza), the songs still evidence the greatness of the falsetto and the humanity of the singer.

Eastwood builds the sentiment into the narrative arc, beginning roughly in the hood and ending sweetly at the Hall of Fame, where the reunion reminds us of their unique charm even though they are old but not out of tune. Jersey Boys may not be the fullest musical imaginable with its middlin' family life sequences, but when it breaks into song with tunes accurately fitting the times, the film becomes a testimony to Clint Eastwood's ability in any genre and the glorious sound of real humans trying to balance audience, mob, and songs.

Maybe it's in the New Jersey water—someone ought to bottle it; otherwise never again will we enjoy the high-pitched romance of local boys making great music. A musical about that rarity has its challenge built into a narrative that must compete with the almost supernatural expression of music:

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." Aldous Huxley