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| Christopher Walken and John Lloyd Young (Warner Bros.) |
Clint
Eastwood’s cold streak hopefully hits bottom with Jersey Boys, an uninspired, drab and disastrously-structured
adaptation of the Tony-winning musical. Chronicling the rise and fall of the
Four Seasons, led by Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young, reprising his Broadway
role), this musical biopic checks every been-there-done-that box in the book.
That alone would make this Jersey Boys
harmless fun – a good time for fans of the music and the story – if so much
wasn’t unfortunately miscalculated. The script’s handling of Valli’s personal
life is horrifically balanced, creating jarring tonal shifts that seep into the
film throughout; it doesn’t help that Young’s transition from stage to film is
a very rocky one, even if his vocals do the songs justice. Most egregious and
unforgivable is just how serious Eastwood is; Jersey Boys is frequently joyless, with all of its energy geared
toward uninteresting band-related conflicts and familial drama. Who wants that
in a blockbuster movie musical? D