Jersey Boys (UK Rating: 15)
For a director that's been quoted as saying he's not keen on musicals, the Broadway and West End hit Jersey Boys (released in UK cinemas on Friday, 20th June) is a strange choice. Eastwood's name had been attached to a number of other projects at the time, yet this was the one he plumped for.Maybe that's because he hasn't approached it as a musical. The film is more of a bio-pic with songs, the rise, fall and rise again of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. They start on the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey, work their way up with some help from a local mobster, fall into debt so that Frankie takes to the road as a solo act to pay off the money and eventually get back together again when they're admitted to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
The cast don't burst into song at the drop of a hat. All the musical numbers are performed as part of the story line, on stage, in a recording studio or on TV. So it's clearly not a musical at all - except that Eastwood has given it an all-singing, all-dancing finale, making it appear that he can't make up his mind what sort of film he's making… and if he doesn't know, what chance does the audience stand?
What Jersey Boys really lacks, though, is something that the original had in abundance: Energy. Given the nature of the music, the whole experience is surprisingly low-key and, while the audience will no doubt tap its toes during the film, the chances of them actually humming the songs as they leave the cinema are a lot lower. Part of the problem is that it is simply too long, with an over-emphasis on the band's early days, so the final section turns into something closer to a slog. Some crisp editing would have produced not only a tighter film, but something with more punch.
While casting the film, Eastwood was emphatic about not choosing well-known names for the four main roles and he remained true to that, picking four actors from either the Broadway or touring production of the show. Only Vincent Piazza looks familiar from his appearances in TV's Boardwalk Empire. It's a tactic that's paid off, certainly in terms of their re-creation of the group's big hits, although the characters they play don't especially stretch their acting abilities. The best known face in the cast is Christopher Walken as the local mobster who backs the boys. He only has a few scenes in the film, some of which are clearly homages to other cinematic gangsters, but in truth he's more of a kindly uncle than a crook.