Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys, the movie about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, is chock full of cliches. There's nothing there you haven't seen before in some biopic or other -- the early days before the career took off, the rise to fame, the problems around fame (family drama, corruption, substance abuse, in-fighting between artists). And yet -- I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. First, the music was really fun. Second, there is comfort in cliche's; they don't tax you. Third, the two-dimensional characters were all more or less likable and the actors gave pleasant performances, with no one really hamming it up. Christopher Walken, as the early mafia supporter of the guys, was particularly great, and the scenes with him in them were my favorite.