Clint Eastwood has not disappointed me yet. And Jersey Boys, though not brilliant, was still enjoyable.
Adapted to the big screen by the same writers who did the musical, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, the story followed the life of Frankie Valli and the tribulations of The Four Seasons that may or may not have been widely known by the public.
Eastwood has a very strong cast to work with. Three strong standouts were John Lloyd Young whose upper register is something to marvel at, Vincent Piazza as the guy you love to hate, and the very likable Erich Bergen. The fourth member, or the least known member of the group, was played by Michael Lomenda who is a first-timer in a motion picture. But all four delivered great performances when called upon, and other than Piazza, the rest are all stage actors.
Christopher Walken also had a great albeit smaller role, though acting wise I didn't think he stretched too far to get into that character. Because he is that character.
There was this one scene which I loved to death as Eastwood did it so beautifully well. When the foursome just realised that one of them has been raking up a large sum of debt, just minutes when they had to go live to perform; the team pulled together with disdain, got on stage and fell right into their choreography. You could see they were so well rehearsed that even with uneven minds, they were comfortable on stage and ready to sell their performance. I thought that was magic.
Unfortunately, that kind of scene didn't come that often. When the songs weren't playing and the four weren't performing or narrating into the camera, you could feel the drop in the onscreen chemistry, especially when dealing with the band members' personal lives.
And in that era, I was expecting more grunge and dirt, but I thought Eastwood kept it way too clean.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie and enjoyed getting to know Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.
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