dvd of the week
Supposedly, Jersey Boys, the Four Seasons jukebox musical, deserved its adulation and four Tony Awards. But as a film directed by Clint Eastwood, Jersey Boys is nostalgic pabulum. The film is a typical musical biopic, tracing the rise, peak, fall and redemption of one of the most successful musical acts of all time. It is narrated by the four original members of the band in succession. First is Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza), an ambitious New Jersey tough guy who uses his mob connections to propel the band he conceived, played bass and arranged vocals for onto the charts. Much of that has to do with putting his younger, unsure friend Frankie Castelluccio (John Lloyd Young) on lead vocals. Frankie, getting an ego, changes his last name to Valli before they meet the serious, wise and absurdly talented Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), the second narrator, who wrote or co-wrote most of the band’s hits. There’s certainly enough drama and good songs for a stellar movie musical, but Clint Eastwood, known best for his no-nonsense naturalism, is a strange choice to make it. He does well with the 1950s New Jersey organized crime sections, but his staging of the songs is so, well, realistic that there’s little thrill to them. It felt as if I was just watching four guys singing.
