The film, however, is a different story. It started in 2010 when cult director Jon Favreau was announced as director, but it fell apart years later when nothing got off the ground. That led to one of Hollywood's favorites, Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood, taking the helm to adapt one of the most successful Broadway shows of all time.
Of course, Eastwood has had his career - Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby are both some of the best films of their respective decades. The two show Eastwood's versatility with handling any type of dramatic film, and these two scratch the surface. Jersey Boys, of course, falls down a different path of the Eastwood formula, with no violence and all music. It's a different style, but it made the public faithful based on his fantastic record.
The film was cast with mostly actors from the Broadway show: John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli, Erich Bergen as Bob Gaudio, Michael Lomenada as Nick Massi, and Renee Marino as Mary Delgado. It's a respectable decision; the actors are familiar with their lines and the music. Indeed, they faithfully adapt the musical with the stellar vocals and slick harmonies that made the Four Seasons famous to begin with.
The flaw was the delivery of the performances. Although the actors do a fine job at character, the studio is far different from the stage. One thing reliant on theatre is the projection from the actors, to convey to members from the front to the way back what they are saying and why it is happening. The acting improved as the film went along, but there were instances in which actors went from excessively (and sometimes hilariously) loud to inaudibly soft. One example of too soft are the bar scenes, where background characters can barely be heard, which doesn't make sense when the actors are speaking a mouse's sound. It threw me out of the feeling that I was investing in a story, and more that I saw successful actors trying to adapt in a different environment.
Christopher Walken did an adequate job as the mobster Gyp DeCarlo, but it was also slightly distracting. Walken is well past his glory days, and this performance shows. His veteran experience helped to establish the best relationships in the film, but it felt miscast simultaneously. It was more of a man who simply did not fit his part.
Another performance strongly miscast was Mike Doyle as the flamboyant record dealer Bob Crewe. The character simply lacked enthusiasm and energy when he was onscreen. When Bob Gaudio wrote a new song expected to be a "hit," Crewe did a poor job at conveying any type of enthusiasm to express excitement. His tone was consistently monotonous, and he almost looked bored whenever he was in a scene.
The biggest sin of any of the cast was Vincent Piazza as the cool man of the Four Seasons, the one who did all the work and didn't take questions from nobody: Tommy DeVito. Given there may be an expectation to realize a character whose performance won a Tony, but Piazza gave the most bland, atrocious, and disrespectful performance to a character in 2014. Originally portrayed by Christian Hoff, Tommy had swagger; he was a bad kid on the streets of Belleville whom nobody messed with. Here Eastwood presents an actor who has a fine tenor voice, but lacks any kind of motivation in his character. When Tommy is mad, he isn't believably mad; when he has his routine to assemble the group, he has no presence as an Alpha, almost as if Frankie or silent Nick would be a better leader. Lastly, when he gets in trouble with the law, it's almost borderline hilarious to see him get arrested for his crime. Piazza conveys no troubling bad boy with a cool walk and a likable swagger - we see, again, another character who looks bored, and looks like a goodie two-shoes trying to be bad to impress Frankie, Nick, and Bob.
One issue from Eastwood was the music. Although I stated it sounds fantastic, Eastwood went the route of Tom Hooper and made the actors sing live on set. That led to evident flaws with Hooper's film - how I desire to skip when Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried sing A Heart Full of Love - and Jersey Boys is no exception. There are a few melody notes that sound flat in primary songs, and a handful of songs that sound unfaithful to the fantastic Broadway soundtrack almost ten years ago.
The other issue is the usage of the music. Although it sounds ideal in theory, combining Walk Like a Man and the scene when Bob (spoilers) loses his virginity simply took away from the charm of the song.. Although it would be repetitive to have a third consecutive song sung on a stage, the scene could have been handled better in a way that doesn't have to combine dialogue to present the show-stopping energy of the song.
Lastly, saving Oh, What a Night as the ensemble finale track doesn't stand out as well as it does onstage. The song is always done after bows, and it engages the audience to sing along and clap. Here, it would have been more appropriate to end with Who Loves You and then go straight to credits. It still ends on a high note, and the audience doesn't have to awkwardly sit there and watch actors do a reprise of a song that never happened in the film. The audience won't clap for a performance that isn't done live, and that's the issue with the end. Also that Christopher Walken looks so out of place that whenever the camera focused on him, I burst out laughing.
This is the song that should have blended in with the Bob scene, just as the stage version had it written.
I won't give a rating to this film, as I feel I can't do adequate justice to balance out my flaws with what actually went well. If you are a die-hard Four Seasons fan and didn't have the opportunity to see the show, check it out, but only for a snowed-in rental. If not, please go see this show live because it is a memorable experience, deserving of the Tony for Best Musical.
