Jersey Boys is a Tony Award winning stage show about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, working class boys who grew up in Jersey and found fame and fortune thanks to the uniquely helium-voiced Valli and a small push from the local mob. This screen adaptation is directed by Clint Eastwood and as we would expect, is a very handsome project. Its vision of 1950s and ‘60s Jersey is one with all the rough edges sanded down, where even the mob bosses are jolly nice guys with a love of sentimental love songs. For me, this isn’t necessarily a problem – the film is recreating a time and place through the prism of fond memories and after all, this is a musical.
Consequently, the first section of the film (where we are introduced to the cast and their lives in New Jersey) is its strongest – it has the spirit of a caper movie with voice-over by the charismatic petty criminal and part-time band leader Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza). The script is genuinely funny, at times feeling like a light-hearted Goodfellas. The music itself is recreated beautifully, with John Lloyd Young providing an uncanny match for Valli’s unique vocals and shy guy charm. The likable cast is rounded out with Michael Lomenda as bass player Nick Massi, Erich Bergen as songwriter Bob Gaudio and Christopher Walken as the mob boss Gyp DeCarlo. Confident performances are given by all.
The problem is, once the group gets out of the neighbourhood and into the limelight, their story isn’t all that interesting and the film hits the same beats that we’ve seen in every other musical biopic – the initial highs of success followed by the family breakdowns, clashes of ego and money troubles that are all part and parcel of life on the road. As these troubles begin to do their nefarious work on the fellowship of the band, the film begins to meander, not quite sure of where it’s going next and unable to live up to the joie de vivre of the first act. It is never anything other than competent but I have to admit that my interest levels took a nosedive.
Perhaps in giving it a glossy, big-screen makeover some of the Broadway razzmatazz of the show has been lost. Certainly there is a lack of energy in the final part of the film that means the audience won’t quite be dancing in the aisles. For the most part though, Jersey Boys is an enjoyable slice of East Coast Americana.