Jersey Boys (Film)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Released Friday 20th June 2014
When a film is adapted into a stage musical it's important the show is able to stand strong as a respectable piece of theatre in its own right, and I think the same applies when adapting a stage musical into a film. Clint Eastwood has certainly made his mark with his film adaptation of Jersey Boys.
The film is very different to the stage musical which, since opening on Broadway in 2005, has been seen by a whopping 19 million people worldwide. Despite being already familiar with the music, the first time I saw the musical I was swept up by its storyline. Jersey Boys tells the story of four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons. The journey is huge and cleverly narrated; I found it absolutely fascinating first time around.
Clint Eastwood's film digs deeper, lots more information about the story of The Four Seasons is included. Whilst information is gained, something else is lost - I didn't connect and couldn’t feel the ups and downs of their journey to stardom. Perhaps too much has been squeezed into the 134 minute film, but I felt it lacked extreme highs and lows and I sometimes felt slightly bombarded.
Understandably musical numbers have been cut, or are instead used as background music. Jersey Boys works as a jukebox musical as the majority of the score is performed in performance context; however, I didn't realise or appreciate until now just how much the music also tells the story and allows you to sympathise with the men.
My personal highlight of the film was the sequence which includes fantastic renditions of 'Sherrie' and 'Big Girls Don't Cry' which leads into a 'Walk Like A Man' montage. Finally I felt like I had something to be excited about! I think more big performance numbers would have really helped with the pace of the film (some scenes drag) and created more extreme highs and lows. I wanted to feel their struggle as well as appreciate their incredible talents and music!
A really strong performance comes from John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli. Having created the role on Broadway and recently reprised his performance in the West End, it's clear Young understands the role inside out. His performance translates well on screen with his rendition of 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' providing another stand out moment.
Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda and Vincent Piazza are also superb as Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito. I hugely respect Eastwood for casting Broadway veterans over Hollywood superstars which often happens with high profile musical to film adaptations; it’s just a shame their talent is underused.
Jersey Boys is an ok film inspired by an outstanding, high quality stage show. For me the finale of the movie really highlighted what the rest of the film was missing - fun. It was wonderful to see the cast dancing and enjoying themselves. Some of the magic may have been lost, but Eastwood certainly tells the story of The Four Seasons. If this is what he set out to do, Eastwood has done his job.
Reviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)
Jersey Boys is in cinemas now.
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