The Solely Broadway Adaptation Clint Eastwood Ever Directed Was A Flop

Musicals are virtually scientifically engineered to carry your spirits. Plots be damned, you’ll be able to’t assist however really feel slightly elated after two-plus hours of watching individuals minimize a rug whereas singing about their innermost emotions. It is a elementary precept that allowed Broadway titans like Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber to reimagine tragic love tales and gothic horror thrillers as crowd-pleasing spectacles about homicide, revenge, and, most terrifying of all, having to take care of a needy, egotistical lead actor. Even after they finish in sorrow and despair, you continue to go away the theater buzzing their catchiest earworms on an endorphin excessive (or, should you’ve solely simply watched “Cats” for the primary time, maybe a distinct form of excessive).

What occurs, then, if you rent the authority on cinematic melancholy that’s twenty first century Clint Eastwood to show your Broadway smash right into a film? You get “Jersey Boys,” probably one of the downbeat and dour musicals ever dedicated to the display. In case you ever questioned whether or not “Mystic River” and even “Million Greenback Child” could be only a tad much less miserable if their characters sang about their feelings in between the moments of anguish, loss, and turmoil, the reply, judging by the outcomes right here, is … not likely. Nonetheless, whereas it is not laborious to know why “Jersey Boys” was a flop upon its launch in 2014, that very same somberness additionally makes it one in all a sort within the fashionable film musical panorama.

Eastwood’s grounded, somber depiction of Sixties rock ‘n’ roll sensation The 4 Seasons’ speedy ascension to fame and the great (and particularly the dangerous) instances that adopted is more true to its supply materials than you would possibly suspect. The unique jukebox Broadway musical written by Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman (sure, as within the Oscar-winning “Annie Corridor” co-writer) eschews the thought of being a fantastical portrayal of the band’s story, presenting itself as one thing akin to a reside theater documentary. In step with that, the Man With No Identify typically avoids the sort of flights of fancy you’d discover in a biopic musical like “Rocketman.” As a substitute, nearly all the songs are diegetic and offered in a sensible gentle (the tip credit apart), whether or not it is the Seasons singing reside in sequences that Eastwood and his trusty cinematographer Tom Stern tone performed by capturing with their typical regular, unfussy protection and subdued black-and-brown shade palette or the group’s music getting used because the soundtrack for montages, lots of which are inclined to concentrate on the extra doleful beats within the band’s story.

What you find yourself with is a film that performs slightly like a bummer model of “That Factor You Do!” … and that is even earlier than the Seasons’ breakout success (because of all-timer pop classics like “Sherry” and “Huge Ladies Do not Cry”) is sullied by the band’s in-fighting, mob money owed, and familial hardships. However the place Tom Hanks’ musical dramedy a couple of fictional ’60s band sky-rocketing up the Billboard charts largely manages to offset its cutesy nostalgia with extra sobering moments, Eastwood’s relentlessly gritty strategy clashes with the scenes the place “Jersey Boys” desires to be extra light-hearted and charming. Most people agree on this level too, as evidenced by the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes scores (51 p.c from critics, with the viewers rating solely a bit increased at 62 p.c) and disappointing field workplace turnout ($67 million worldwide in opposition to a $40 million price range).

Nonetheless, with its soulful music, themes of flawed masculinity, and a wistful story concerning the worth that comes with a lifetime spent within the highlight, “Jersey Boys” is actually as private as anything Eastwood has ever directed. Regardless of its missteps, it even succeeds as, basically, an anti-Broadway crowd-pleaser and that each one too uncommon specimen of a musical that will truly go away you feeling extra despondent than you probably did stepping into. (Y’know, if that is your factor.)