Jersey Boys Review

[Westside Steve]

Jersey Boys

Warner Brothers

R 134 min

 

Well I will admit that I was never huge follower of the Four Seasons. I did and do like them a lot and think that Frankie Valli has one of the most distinctive voives in the business which is so very important and rock and roll. There are a lot of great voices but it's the special ones that stand out.

I'm aware that JERSEY BOYS is a hit Broadway show that chronicles the history and the music of the New Jersey quartet and has been brought to the silver screen oddly enough by director Clint Eastwood. That would lead you to believe, rightly, the story is more biography than just music. (I just finished the first volume of an audio book called TuneIn by Mark Lewis that is 43 hours long and covers the history of the Beatles through 1962. Just about every tiny facet of the Fab Fours lives is covered with 2 more volumes to come. Being a Beatles fanatic I knew much of the story but was fascinated by the in depth detail.)

With the Four Seasons I had absolutely no idea and found JERSEY BOYS to be interesting as well as entertaining albeit more of a sketch than an in-depth study.

We have all heard stories about New York New Jersey, the mob, the Italian American community and how it relates to the entertainment business. That's the story of four kids who went from the street corner to the top of the charts with a little help from their connected friends.

At the beginning Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazzi) is a band leader, sure, but most of all a tough street smart and less than scrupulous hustler. He and the boys are trying hard to make it as a lounge act but when Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young) steps on stage it's his voice that really makes the band come alive. Unfortunately without hit songs they are like any other band. That's where Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen) comes in. He's a promising but unpolished songwriter whose musical vision will be brought into focus by legendary and flamboyant producer Bob Crewe (Mike Doyle) . Pretty soon the duo of Gaudio and Valli start to eclipse Tommy and Nick who become lesser entities within the band. Unfortunately Tommy still has a great deal of control the finances and his shady business dealings eventually catch up with him. Remember these aren't loan officers from the Huntington Bank he's dealing with here and the future as well as the health of the band members is in peril.

So that's the basic summary of the film which will be interspersed with vignettes from the recording studio and tidbits of trivia about some of their hit songs. Of course none of this would work without Tony winner Young’s incredible voice In the first couple scene where he hops up to sing with the band he probably won't sound right to you. Remember that on records Bob Crewe used an effect known as doubling. Many of the late 50's 60's and later artists sang the lead part twice and synced them together for a bigger sound.

If I needed to find fault with this film it's that maybe the story might have been a little grittier, and knowing Eastwood's ability I wondered why he held back. Still for those of us who didn't know any of this story it’s pretty cool. Of course the songs are great as are the performances especially Young without whom the film wouldn't work at all.

Sure it's a bit lighter than I would've expected from Eastwood butt it’s a lot of fun.

B

WSS