Jersey Boys: A Well Crafted Paint By Numbers Rock Biopic

Ok, take some talented types from a nowheresville situation.  Give theme one kind of an edge or another.  Ensure they cross paths with some kind of visionary who recognizes what they have before them.  Give them that hook that ensures an adoring public.  And bang, let the magic happen.  Yep, pretty much the standard recipe for your rock biopic.  Because that is how you distill down the rise of an artist in the Hollywood format.  You rise above the format by filling in the details and telling the audience why this, THIS STORY...is different.

In this case, begin with some hardscrabble youths from New Jersey who are trying to break out of Nowheresville, New Jersey, where their options look bleak (only a couple seem to exist, the mob and the Army, and both run the risk of a body bag).  Vincent Piazza plays Tommy DeVito and steps up to introduce himself as the guy who has the real story of the ascent of the Four Seasons.  You first see the youths involved in what looks like a heist, with Tommy hooking up with Frankie Costellucio (Frankie Valli).  You will run through a few scenes with disapproving parents, the four guys trying to come up with a hook,  girl trouble, infidelity, stresses that threaten to break up the group, jealousy, etc.

Director Clint Eastwood loves music as well as history, which is probably a big part of what drew him to this story.  It does have his skilled hand in both setting tone and visuals bringing to life the era.  The only problem is the format itself.  Formula, if adhered to too closely, and too much of the real spice behind the scenes is left out just so we can get in some songs and the expected arc within a reasonable amount of screen time, the actual meat of why this story matters can be lost, or at least severely dilluted.

But then, I've never gotten watching impersonators try to sing songs that are usually better done by the originals.  And I've always thought Franki Valli did better stuff post Four Seasons anyway.  Grease?  Oh What A Night? You feelin it?

Sometimes  its is just best to go back to the music.