Musically delightful, everything else meh

Rating: 5/10 (20 June 2014)

Quickie Review:
From director Clint Eastwood, comes the cinematic adaption of the Broadway musical, Jersey Boys. The story is based on the real lives of the rock and roll hall of famers, The Four Seasons. The film is about the band's rise to fame and the speed bumps that they face along the way. With a talented director and some of the cast from the actual Broadway musical who know the material better than anyone else, this had the potential to be a great musical. The music is very catchy and wonderfully performed, also the era in which it is set is well realized. While the musical aspect is great, the rest of the movie falls apart due to a poorly structured and executed storytelling.
Full Review:
Despite not knowing much about The Four Seasons, I usually quite enjoy life stories of famous past artists and their struggles along the way. So considering this was a popular and successful musical, being directed by a legend in Hollywood, Clint Eastwood, I was quite intrigued. In the beginning I saw some promise, but as the movie went on I felt my interest wane.
This is after all a musical, so the one thing that has to be great is the music, and thankfully it is. As I mentioned the songs are indeed catchy. I never listened to The Four Seasons, and I don't carry that genre of music on my phone to listen to on the road. And yet I really enjoyed all the songs to the point I want to check out more of the band's discography. So the credit goes to the actors for their amazing voices (and of course The Four Seasons for actually making the songs originally). On the other hand the acting style of the cast felt out of place. Some of them come directly from Broadway, and that is clearly seen in their performance, because everything is very exaggerated. That style is perfect and very much needed for on-stage, but on-screen the acting needs to be more subtle. So there are points where it feels like the cast is over-acting, which can get distracting.
The main problem with the movie is the structure of the story. There are events and situations that occur very abruptly. The reason for this is because there is no coherence in the time-line of the movie. You don't know whether 5 months or 5 years have passed between scenes, there are no visual cues. So for example, there might be some argument that may break out as a result of tension building up over 10 years. But because you don't see that build up at all, much less know that 10 years passed in just 3 scenes, the eventual fight breaking out feels like it came out of nowhere. This completely took me out of the movie several times because to me the reactions of the characters made no sense without the much needed proper context. There are times where a character breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience. This would've been useful for filling in those gaps, but instead is used to state some obvious things that are happening or about to happen.
In the end, I can't say that I enjoyed the movie. The unorganized flow of the story can get the motives of the characters confusing. This completely removes any emotional effect of some critical scenes. As a result you have little care for what's going on. Ultimately this is a slow and boring movie with some good music. I would only recommend this to fans of The Four Seasons, with caution though. At least Jersey Boys got me exposed to some good oldies music **off to Spotify**.
Check out more on my movie review blog The Stub Collector: http://thestubcollector.wordpress.com/