By CYNTHIA BIDDLECOMB“Jersey Boys” is Clint Eastwood’s effort to put the hugely successful Broadway musical of the same name on the big screen.
It is the story of Frankie Valli and the original N.J., through their trying to survive in the big time. The music of the Four Seasons plays throughout the film, making it more than worth the price of admission.
The story is told by each of the four band members, cutting away at times to talk straight to the camera.
Movie poster for ‘Jersey Boys.’ Courtesy/Reel Deal Theater
Tommy DeVito’s (Vincent Piazza) version of the story comes first. According to him, he gets the credit for organizing the band and keeping the boys out of real trouble. In truth, he was right hand young hoodlum to Gyp DeCarlo (Christopher Walken’s role as a small time mafia boss).
In those early days, Frankie was the sweet one everybody protected, despite Tommy involving him in light criminal activity. When justice is served, Tommy and Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) take the brunt of jail time. Tommy has a band and one night gets Frankie to sing with them.
Then one night, Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), a songwriter with his first hit song under his belt, is brought by a mutual friend, Joe Pesci (yes, later, the actor, but played here by Joseph Russo), to a club to hear Frankie sing. The rest is history, though the road to hitting it big is long and arduous.
Those of us old enough to remember the words to their songs, will recognize the best of the Four Seasons repertoire, all pieces performed or in the soundtrack of the movie: Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, Since I Don’t Have You, Dawn (Go Away), Rag Doll, Silence is Golden, Let’s Hang On, Working My Way Back to You, Can’t Take Me Eyes Off You, Will You Love Me Tomorrow?, My Eyes Adored You, Who Loves You?, Our Day Will Come, and Oh, What a Night.
The Four Seasons were the most popular group in America before the Beatles. In 1990, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The focus of the film is on how the relationships among the four men, Frankie, Tommy, Bob and Nick, worked and played out over at least their decade of popularity as a group. The glue to the film is all those hit songs and Frankie’s amazing voice, recreated in the movie by the same John Lloyd Young who introduced the role on Broadway.
Jersey Boys is worth seeing, if for the music alone. Strong language has earned the film an “R” rating. Suggestions of sexual liaisons (but no sex scenes) and a bit of mob crime and violence, make it appropriate for a more mature audience, including maybe older teens who might like the music of the 1950s and 60s rock scene.
