“Frankie, the world is going to hear that voice,” says Angelo ‘Gyp’ DeCarlo (Christopher Walken), the highly respected/connected mobster, talking to a young Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young). Gyp’s trying to reassure the kid if he works hard one day he’ll make it big in the music business with his great singing voice in the movie adaptation of the smash Broadway hit musical Jersey Boys.
The film opens in 1951 New Jersey where Frankie Valli is a barber’s assistant and is hoping to be in his best friend Tommy DeVito’s (Vincent Piazza) music group. Together the two young hellraisers get into trouble with the law on a regular basis. But since Frankie is the youngest – Tommy almost always covers for him and even convinces the judge, when they end up getting caught stealing and destroying property – to let him off with a warning while Tommy takes the full punishment.
A few years pass and Tommy brings Frankie into the group along with their friend Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda). But even with Frankie’s great falsetto voice the group has no original songs which keeps them from getting recorded and hitting the big time. Things begin to change though when Tommy’s friend Joe Pesci (Joseph Russo) … Yes, the famous actor before he became famous … introduces the gang to Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), a music writer who already has a semi-hit playing in jukeboxes. After some resistance from Tommy who’s initially leery of letting Bob in as a full partner, the four friends set out to make new music, record a demo, and finally make it to the big time with their new name: The Four Seasons.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Jersey Boys is an engaging, great looking musical movie biography of the rise and eventual fall of the classic 1960s rock group. The film benefits greatly with the casting of three actors who played the same roles on stage: John Lloyd Young, Michael Lomenda and Erich Bergen. These three young actors know exactly how to portray these characters and already have solid chemistry. However, the real stand-out performance in the cast is by Vincent Piazza as Tommy the original leader of the group and Frankie’s surrogate big brother. Piazza captures perfectly the wannabe wise guy punk who’s always looking for an angle to make a quick extra couple of bucks and who can’t keep away from gambling. In fact, the only redeemable quality Tommy has is his friendship with Frankie and how he looks out for him like an older brother would and gets him started in the group. It’s a performance that should be considered come Oscar time for Best Supporting Actor.
Christopher Walken steals every scene he’s in – no big surprise here – as the New Jersey mob boss Gyp DeCarlo who has great affection for the four young men (especially Frankie) and becomes a great friend and adviser to the guys during the darker times of the Four Seasons’ career. It’s a performance that might just be remembered during Oscar nominating season.
The production of the film is fantastic, bringing back to the big screen the look, sound, and feel of the 1950s, 1960s and the early 1970s in America. The clothes, cars, hairstyles, buildings, clubs, stages all look and feel authentic capturing an era long since gone. But by far it’s the music and the classic hits of The Four Seasons that are the biggest highlight of the film as the moviegoing audience either re-lives or experiences for the first time such classic songs as “My Eyes Adored You,” “Sherry,” “Dawn” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You.” The film’s soundtrack is sure to have audiences downloading these classics to their iPod soon after leaving the theater.
The only weakness in the film is with the make-up as the four singers age over the decades, which seems to be almost non-existent and than used almost laughably bad near the end of the film.
With strong performances, great direction, wonderful set and costume design, and a classic soundtrack, Jersey Boys is an extremely entertaining musical not to be missed.
GRADE: B
Jersey Boys opens in theaters on June 20, 2014.
– Reviewed by Kevin Finnerty
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