Jersey Boys was based on a stage musical created in 2005. The film, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, is a musical drama that was released in 2014. Currently available on Netflix, I decided to give it a watch since I’m a fan of many types of music and enjoy learning about the history of musicians or musical groups. After watching it, I was very satisfied and would recommend this movie to others.

Jersey Boys tells the story of the band The Four Seasons from their inception in the 1950s all the way up until they got back together to sing at their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. But the large majority of the film takes place in the 50s and 60s. It was the troubled Tommy DeVito who put together a trio with his brother and their friend Nick Massi. The famous Frankie Valli was just a 16-year old kid at the time, but also someone whom Tommy was greatly interested in because of his natural singing ability. It wasn’t long before Frankie would become part of the group, then called The Four Lovers.

After Tommy’s brother Nicky left the group, it left a substantial void, primarily because he was the song writer. However, their future would forever change when Tommy’s friend Joe Pesci (yes, the actor) introduced them to singer-songwriter Bob Gaudio. With an incredible knack for writing songs, Gaudio went on to write many of the band’s hit songs including “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

But the movie is more than just a brief history of the band with performances of their songs. It takes you on a wild ride of the band’s journey through success, fame, and many troubles. While The Four Seasons appeared to have a clean-cut, perfect image on the outside, they had an abundance of issues on the inside that the public was not aware of. There were prison sentences, gambling debts, threats from the mafia, and family issues. This movie takes you directly through all the ups and downs the band faced in a pretty intimate way, even with bits of narration coming straight from the characters themselves throughout the movie.

I enjoyed Jersey Boys quite a bit. The term musical sort of turned me off when I looked up the movie before watching, but it wasn’t a musical in the sense I was thinking. You watch the band perform their songs to different audiences throughout the movie as part of the plot, rather than the plot pausing and the band singing to the viewer of the movie. And the songs were some of the best parts of the movie. I knew very little about The Four Seasons and their work before watching this movie. I had heard a lot of their songs, but never knew who sang them until watching.

I thought the acting was above average as well, especially since Eastwood chose stage actors (besides Vincent Piazza who played Tommy) who regularly performed the Jersey Boys musical on stage, rather than a Hollywood cast. The plot was very interesting, telling the story of a group of kids who came from a rough New Jersey neighborhood and became a well-known musical group around the world. All the troubles and hard times they experienced made the plot even more interesting because it added the important dramatic appeal to it.

My biggest complaint with the movie is I thought it ran a little long. There were some rather boring monologue parts that could have been taken out and it wouldn’t have taken away from the movie. The run-time is 2 hours and 14 minutes and if it were about 20 minutes shorter, it would make it a little easier to watch for the viewer. All in all, it was a fun, entertaining, and educational film. The story is good enough for the casual viewer to enjoy, and even better to fans of 1960s music. I don’t think there’s any way you would walk away disappointed after watching Jersey Boys.

Rating: 4.00/5

Garett

Movie Review: Jersey Boys