Review - Jersey Boys

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Toes Remain Tapping in Jersey

Being at the top isn’t easy. Getting there is a whole lot tougher, especially in the days before American Idol, The Voice and all the rest.

Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young) and Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza) are friends. Tommy plays in a band and after the first time he brings Frankie on stage, he realizes what he can bring to the band.

As the story of the creation of The Four Seasons progresses we get to see the addition of Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen) to the band, as introduced to them by Joe Pesci (yep that Joe Pesci).

We see the lengths Tommy goes through to keep the band, and himself afloat.

We see a blow up or two.

We see a fractured family relationship.

We see everything that goes on among members of a band, with the Jersey influence.

And we get to hear Frankie sing; songs that the viewers may not have known were even in The Four Seasons songbook. We tap our toes and move to the beat, and that…makes us smile.

The story has been told on stage for years, but now in film form it is opened up to a different audience. I, for one, have never seen the stage show. I think after seeing this I’d like to check it out. Anticipating the story of the rise of an iconic music group and knowing the origins, at least, of the stage show, I expected a lot of music. And in this aspect I found myself a bit disappointed.

Now it may just have been perspective, but I felt that with a nearly two hour and 15 minute runtime there could have been a fuller music feel to the film. Director Clint Eastwood loves music, he’s proven it in his past films and interviews. I thought I would have seen more full songs in the movie, instead much of the sounds are relegated to background or brief snippets at times. There are only a couple of all out music moments and they all felt like they scored to me.

The blending together of the ultra real Jersey language pushes this to an R rating when, for the most part, it is pretty tame.

I think if you have seen the stage show, this will probably be a nice accompaniment to what you have experienced. But for those of you who haven’t, like myself, this is just a warm and fuzzy piece that goes on a bit too long and becomes ultimately forgettable. Well except for the toe tapping music that will always live on.

B-

Jersey Boys

Warner Brothers Pictures

Director: Clint Eastwood

Cast: Vincent Piazza, John Lloyd Young, Christopher Walken

Rating: R for language throughout.

Runtime: 2 hours 14 minutes