Behind the hit-makers

It sounds like a rather improbable combination—a film based on a Broadway musical about a doo-wop group from the late 1950s/early 1960s, with Clint Eastwood directing. But this thoroughly entertaining production has plenty going for it, and those offbeat combinations add some unexpectedly intriguing dimensions to the familiar movie-musical format.

The title characters are the members of the Four Seasons, the now-legendary Hall of Fame pop group from New Jersey. The power-pop falsetto of lead singer Frankie Valli is an especially memorable element of the group’s biggest and most memorable hit songs: “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” etc.

Naturally, that music is the driving force of Jersey Boys, yet as the title also suggests, the individual characters of the four original members are important in the overall story as well. The diminutive Valli is the one big name in the group, and he is central to everything else here as well. But the other three also get crucial moments of close-up attention in what emerges as an unusually conflicted group portrait.

All four are Italian-Americans from New Jersey, and with the exception of songwriting whiz Bob Gaudio, they all have done time in jail while still in their teens. The script, adapted by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice from their original stage version, develops a quietly nuanced picture of a group that, apart from its music, is driven by disharmony.

Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza), lead guitarist and the band’s original leader, is arrogant and erratic, a controlling force whose self-indulgence very nearly destroys the band. Bassist Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) is a reflexive team player who, until pushed to the breaking point, is cheerfully indifferent to the others’ roiling ambitions. Gaudio (Erich Bergen), the youngest and most cerebral of the group, immerses himself in the role of Valli’s key musical collaborator.

John Lloyd Young is excellent in the vocal and musical aspects of the Valli role, but the best acting in the film comes elsewhere. Piazza is very good with DeVito’s outsized self-deceptions, and Bergen’s Gaudio is a nice study in half-formed intellect scouting for its main chance. Christopher Walken is fine as the neighborhood honcho who becomes Valli’s Mafia-connected protector. And Mike Doyle makes a striking impression as the openly gay producer/lyricist Bob Crewe.

The Brickman-Elice script is at its best in moments when the individual Jersey Boys directly address the camera in mid-action. And it is at its weakest in scenes of Valli’s besotted domestic life. The latter scenes mark the flat spots in Young’s performance, and the actresses involved (Renée Marino, Erica Piccininni, Freya Tingley), while well-cast, are given little to work with.

Eastwood’s direction is proficient throughout, and part of the movie’s pleasure derives from its success in blending the story’s disparate genres—stylized movie musical, domestic drama with Mafia connections, period piece, rock ’n’ roll romp.