Clint Eastwood
brings you the musical biography of a jukebox musical.
Jersey Boys
, tells us the story and the origins of the band of singers known as the Four Seasons in the 1950s, in the backdrop of a difficult times as they had to deal with mafias, gambling and family disasters to emerge out the other end with the kind of music that a generation grew up with.Â
Plot: The movie is basically the on-screen narration of the four members of the Four Seasons mostly by directly looking at the camera and talking to the viewers. As Castelluccio (Lloyd Young) and Tommy DeVito (Piazza) get in trouble for a failed heist, it starts the beginning of their singing band. After Nick Massi (Lomenda) joins the band and Castelluccio changed his name to
Frankie Valli
, the group then got together with the Joey Pesci, and Bob Gaudio, the lyricist, their journey to fame begins. After going through a lot of failures, they catch the ears of Bob Crewe, a famous producer-lyricist, and through him they manage to reach their fans and the audience they needed. However, their old associations with the mob and gambling come in between and also their friendship that threatens their fame as well the history they were on the road to making.Â
Jersey Boys is not the kind of action thriller movies one would expect from Eastwood, but he has successfully brought alive the story of the Four Seasons. Even though the movie started to seem like a musical after quite some time, but when it did, it was worth waiting for, because they chemistry between the actors and their singing voices are just a treat for the ears, and they deliver us the famous numbers of the Jersey Boys one after the other. Even though the movie does have a lot of focus on the backward stories of these boys, and how they have actually reached the point where they are now, all of their individual and collective hardships can be classified as a truly inspirational story that can teach us how to persevere through the toughest of times to reach our goals.Â
The setting of the movie is done with under-saturated tones and detailed sets that fit the laid-back 60s mood very nicely. In addition to that, the direct at-camera narration may not sound so good, but the way it is done is not at all awkward, and moreover it would make the viewer feel like they are coming to know more about the narrator’s actual thoughts than the other characters know. Through the realness of the distress that the four boys have to go through and how overcoming these problems take a toll on their lives eventually has been shown very naturally. The cherry on the top would be the last performance of the Four Seasons at the end of the movie that concludes it for the audience in very high spirits.Â
Verdict: To this passionate story about the life of music and hardships that lead to the making of some eternal music and songs of an older generation, I give this movie 4 out of 5 victories.