We've had some terrific music biopics in recent years:
Control (about Joy Division's Ian Curtis), Walk The Line (Johnny Cash), Ray (Ray Charles). But Jersey Boys doesn't merit a place on that list. Despite the success of the stage musical that spawned it, and the presence of director Clint Eastwood, the film is a little like the music at its heart - more catchy than classic.
Appreciation of the music isn't a requisite, of course, but it helps. And The Four Seasons don't do it for me. With their bland, dated lyrics, screeched in Frankie Valli's falsetto tenor, 1950s hits like Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry and Walk Like A Man today sound like curio Christmas records.
Nevertheless, the group dominated the American charts in the period immediately before The Beatles came along and upped the ante. And their rags-to-riches story, with the Mob lurking in the wings, is an interesting one. It's the film that fails to make it fizz.
The premise is that this seemingly clean-cut quartet were lucky to be in the music industry at all, given that three of them were from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey, a community where a life in the army or the Mob were the only options. Fame was an unlikely third possibility, and one that might stop them from dying young; Valli and his friends were lucky enough to find it.
It opens in 1951. Sixteen-year-old Frankie (John Lloyd Young, reprising his award-winning stage role) is working as a trainee barber, but dreams of being in the music business. His friend Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza) has the seeds of a group, and is keen to include Frankie's "voice of an angel". At the same time, Tommy, a character who might have been lifted from Goodfellas, works for local crime kingpin Gyp DeCarlo (Christopher Walken) and isn't adverse to using Frankie in his illegal activities.
Tommy's perseverance pushes the group forward. The turning point, though, comes with the addition of singer-songwriter Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), who's not from the neighbourhood and has more talent and industry savvy than Tommy. A new power dynamic is quietly forged, involving Frankie and Bob, that will eventually undermine the group's cohesion.
The pattern of the film is a familiar one, probably because the evolution of pop and rock careers has its own template - of struggle, breakthrough, success, fame and self-destruction. As ever, the rise is much more satisfying than the fall.
The early stages are buoyant and often very funny: the petty criminal escapades, with Frankie as lookout breaking into song to alert his friends; the usually scary Walken bursting into tears whenever Frankie sings; the formation of their musical style and the effervescent effect on their lives of camp producer Bob Crewe (Mike Doyle), at a time when people thought that Liberace was "just theatrical".
But when their fortunes take a tumble, Eastwood and his screenwriters (who also wrote the book for the musical) drop the ball. The group's problems include internecine warfare, affairs, the tragic effect of constant touring on Frankie's family and the fact that Tommy owes thousands to gangsters. But the decision to maintain essentially the same jaunty tone throughout all this undermines what could have been a gritty and far more fascinating story. And what a shame we don't get a chance to see Walken dance.
Eastwood is a well-known jazz man, so it's not surprising that he demonstrated a much surer touch with Bird, his earlier music biopic of Charlie Parker. If only for the milieu, I would have liked to have seen what Scorsese would have made of this one.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article