Jersey Boys

Multi-award-winning actor and director, Clint Eastwood, turns his hand to the world of musicals by adapting stage success, Jersey Boys, for the big screen.

It’s the true story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, from their spectacular rise to fame in the ’60s with hit songs such as Big Girls Don’t Cry, and Sherry, to their eventual tempestuous disbanding.

The list of recognisable hits is longer than you might think and sadly, for a musical, they don’t get enough screen time. Songs have been cut or shrunk to make way for lingering looks and close-ups, which sometimes slows the pace to almost inert.

Big events in the original story are skipped over in cursory fashion to better focus on the gritty biopic about four Italian boys from a tough New Jersey neighbourhood.

Three out of the four main cast members were plucked from the award-winning stage show, and are so comfortable within these versions of their characters that translating them to the screen is boring. The standout (which should be John Lloyd Young’s Frankie Valli) is actually television actor Vincent Piazza’s Tommy DeVito. This changes the intended narrative entirely, when really, the music should be front and centre. (LL)

** /5