Jersey Boys
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Written by: Marshall Brickman & Rick Elise
Starring: John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda, Vincent Piazza, Christopher Walken, Mike Doyle, Renée Marino, Erica Piccininni, Joseph Russo, Kathrine Narducci, Freya Tingley, Johnny Cannizzaro
Biography/Drama/Musical - 134 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 20 Jun 2014
Written by: Marshall Brickman & Rick Elise
Starring: John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda, Vincent Piazza, Christopher Walken, Mike Doyle, Renée Marino, Erica Piccininni, Joseph Russo, Kathrine Narducci, Freya Tingley, Johnny Cannizzaro
Biography/Drama/Musical - 134 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 20 Jun 2014
Biopics, especially those showcasing actors and musicians, follow a predictable arc. There is the young talent at the start with big dreams and an exciting rise. The wheels start to come off at their peak, not just in their lives as competing pressures and fatal flaws emerge, but in the film’s pacing which stutters into episodic sequences departing from the first half’s smoother flow. Jersey Boys follows this path as faithfully as Dorothy sticks to the Yellow Brick Road.
New Jersey shapes and molds young Frankie Castelluccio (John Lloyd Young). The neighborhood’s heavy Italian-American atmosphere and Cadillac-load of wise guys imbue Frankie with his heightened devotion to the ideals of loyalty, protecting your own, honoring where you come from, and keeping your mouth shut. Frankie is not a made man or even on track to enter Belville, New Jersey’s main employment center, the mob racket. However, he is loosely apprenticed to the area’s overseer, Gyp DeCarlo (Christopher Walken, 2012's Seven Psychopaths), and tied directly to his loose cannon mentor, Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza).
New Jersey shapes and molds young Frankie Castelluccio (John Lloyd Young). The neighborhood’s heavy Italian-American atmosphere and Cadillac-load of wise guys imbue Frankie with his heightened devotion to the ideals of loyalty, protecting your own, honoring where you come from, and keeping your mouth shut. Frankie is not a made man or even on track to enter Belville, New Jersey’s main employment center, the mob racket. However, he is loosely apprenticed to the area’s overseer, Gyp DeCarlo (Christopher Walken, 2012's Seven Psychopaths), and tied directly to his loose cannon mentor, Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza).
Tommy is designed for and only focuses on a few enterprises. In order of importance, these are scoring a short con, having a good time whether there are appropriate funds or not, and then managing the new Frankie Valli’s fledgling singing career and the early versions of what would become The Four Seasons. To Tommy’s credit, he knows Frankie is his meal ticket out of there so when the law comes calling now and again, Tommy takes the heat to ensure Frankie stays clean and focused on his supernatural voice.
Watching and listening to Frankie’s voice mature and grab hold of that iconic falsetto is not only the first half highlight, but the most enjoyable part of the film. As the Four Seasons come together and suddenly catapult to stardom with their early songs “Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” Jersey Boys has been smooth and intriguing as characters are introduced and we learn personalities and motivations. The second half is where those episodic situations pop up after the band starts to splinter, as does the film.
Tommy’s financial misdeeds are the spark, but there is also family drama because dad is always on the road, infidelities, and a couple other plot points that produce enough friction to make the second half feel like a soap opera. What works is that director Clint Eastwood (2011's J. Edgar) brings along an integral part of the original Tony-award winning Broadway musical the film is based on; each Four Season breaks the ‘fourth wall’ and speaks directly to the camera telling their side of the story.
Sometimes when characters talk directly to us the writers could be called lazy but the gimmick works here. John Lloyd Young, reprising his Tony-award winning portrayal of Frankie, just wants to sing and become famous while doing it. Frankie’s song-writing partner, Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), is the business savvy and more experienced performer and recognizes he has found the purest and sweetest voice in the world to write for. Bassist Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) recognizes that in a foursome, one guy has to be more aloof than the others, but he gets his time to shine.
The breakout star of the movie, though, is Vincent Piazza as Tommy. Piazza is the one actor who was never involved in any of the Broadway or national touring musical companies for Jersey Boys. He was not even adept at singing and dancing. What he brings to the table is the film’s best performance as a domineering presence that is always right and is never shown enough respect. Eastwood’s casting of Piazza was a risky move that worked; he could have just cast any of the actors who are already familiar with the character.
Following in the footsteps of turning successful Broadway musicals into movies including Hairspray (2007), Mamma Mia! (2008), and Les Misérables (2012), Jersey Boys is faithful to the original and will not only have you humming walking out of the theater but will embed these songs in your head for days. Yet for all the wonderful performances and the quirky stories behind the songs you know so well, the film’s sputtering and lurching second half is enough to weigh down the film’s overall feel good vibe. The same can be said for 2004’s Ray. However, if you remember when these songs came out and were original Four Seasons fans, then by all means, go and take a stroll down memory lane.
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