Summer Most Heat Moon
While a thunderstorm rattled windows and scared dogs up here in Andover, Kate and I sat in the past, watching Clint Eastwood’s love song to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. If you grew up in the era, it’s a fun movie for the singing of such hits as “Sherry, Baby”, “Walk Like A Man”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.”
As a work, it’s downright hagiographic about St. Frankie. Who knows, maybe he was like that, but his feet must have found at least a little clay during his long singing career. He emotes for his daughter, lost to the streets and to drugs. He takes on a large debt because a neighborhood friend, one of the Four Seasons, gets behind on the vig. Through it all he remains impeccably dressed and blessed with a voice a castrata could love.
If you’re not of the era, and all the folks at the Andover Cinema 3:45 pm showing today were, this movie will probably appear a bit cheesy and you’ll wonder what all the fuss is about.
