TwitView: A fascinating, fun film that shows the rough edges around those smooth melodies. B+
The Four Seasons. Mostly, I knew of ‘em thanks to the overuse of some of their 70s hits at the neighborhood pool where I grew up. Then there’s the fantastic 1994 remix of “December 1963 (Oh What A Night)” that is still rockin’. In 2005, there’s the Broadway peek into the inner workings of the band, a little musical called Jersey Boys. Seems like everybody and their mother (especially their mother) headed out to see that, everyone but me. So this is a long-winded way for me to say that I’ll be reviewing this film as a stand-alone entity.
Jersey Boys sometimes feels like a “Behind The Music” episode, with it’s ups-and-then-downs storyline. But director Clint Eastwood steers clear of the maudlin and instead goes straight for the jugular more than once, giving Boys more heart than VH1 could ever muster. This isn’t a gloss job to blow smoke on Hall of Fame rockers, it’s a fictionalized look at real people with tons of true tales mixed in. That means there’s the good (Number 1s! Fame! Fortune!) and the bad (financial irresponsibility, relationship problems, and death). Eastwood’s a smart cookie here, casting performers from Jersey Boys’ Broadway and touring cast (Michael Lomenda, Erich Bergen, and Tony winner John Lloyd Young; Boardwalk Empire’s Vincent Piazza is the only non-stage Season here), and keeping much of the “book” (storyline structure, for non-theater nerds out there) from the original musical.
