Review of Jersey Boys (2014) by Matt C — 05 Jul 2014

I've never seen the original musical on which this is based, but if I had to only go by this adaptation, I'd be absolutely shocked if someone told me that it won a Tony, because this is a mess.

Why does this movie even exist? It's not like Clint Eastwood brought anything interesting to this material, but if anything, he ruined it. The direction makes everything feel awkward, the script lacks cohesiveness, and the acting is overbearing.

What Eastwood did here is nothing, because the film has no character or sense of interest in its own story. It's like he didn't even care enough to put his own spin on a Tony-winning broadway play so he just let characters awkwardly break the fourth wall.

This doesn't work as a movie. The production design does its job (despite one scene of eyesore-inducing green screen), but the film has no personality and when it isn't a musical number that works rather well, what's onscreen is dull and kind of kitsch.

There's a subplot regarding Frankie Valli and his daughter, and their theme song together is My Eyes Adored You, which is kind of creepy and laughable given that it's between a father and daughter.

And he even sings the words "though I never laid a hand on you" to her. Kind of tying into the direction is the script, which is shockingly predictable, but it doesn't even have a sense of cohesiveness.

At the beginning, it says that it's 1951, and then about 40 minutes later, someone mentions that it's 1959. In one scene, Frankie Valli is on a date, and literally 30 seconds later, they're married.

The timeline is contrived and weird, and the film itself is 134 minutes, which is about 50 minutes too long for its material. The direction, as well, gives off an uneven tone, and the characters seem to not even age until the last 20 minutes, where they have unconvincing makeup and gray wigs.

The acting is... not good. It's actually really overbearing, not only because everyone is over the top and excessive (given that some of them are actually Broadway actors), but they don't have a lot to do.

Characterization is minimized because the film literally tells you about characters instead of having them live their lives and letting you observe them. Characters talk to the camera about their peers, and about 90% of the time, what they're saying is already obvious to begin with.

The actors do well with the music, because they actually sing, and that's the only really sense of energy in the film. There's a part of me that is wondering if Clint Eastwood even cared about this story or if he was bored and wanted to make a movie for giggles, and it comes off that way since the humor doesn't work either.

I was entertained for the first 70 minutes, but mostly because I was trying to figure out what the movie was trying to be (but I'm still not sure). The movie could have ended like, five times, but it just keeps going and plays like a director's cut of a 90-minute feature.

3.9/10, really bad, two thumbs down, far below average, etc.