Being The Ricardos - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

The 1950’s were a fascinating period in the history of the United States. With World War Two and the Great Depression in the books, America was moving forward and falling in love with a new medium for entertainment, the Television set. One of the biggest shows of the decade was a little program featuring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz called I Love Lucy. The new movie Being The Ricardos from Writer/Director Aaron Sorkin, the man who brought us The Trial Of The Chicago 7, just debuted on Amazon Prime Video this week. Mr. Sorkin throws us headfirst into a pivotal point in the shows history and through his excellent storytelling, he’s able to effectively weave the plot points together and build momentum up with the best of them. Even with a two plus hour run, the film doesn’t slog much but despite the excellent pacing there’s some problems that really keep this film from being great. Anytime an actor is playing a real person, it can be more difficult to buy into the performance, take Kristen Stewart in Spencer from earlier this year, she obviously looks different from Princess Diana but after a while you start to buy in. Although the performances from Kidman and Bardem are really good it’s hard to see Desi and Lucy when looking at them. But the movie is solid otherwise and there’s something here for most everyone, critics and general audiences alike, while we get a fascinating glimpse into what life was like Being The Ricardos.

SYNOPSIS - Our journey back into the world of 1950’s Television begins with some actors describing how big of an influence I Love Lucy was on American life at the height of it’s dominance. We then catch up with Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) upset with Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) for getting home after being gone twenty-seven hours and Lucy slapping him and accusing him of cheating. Desi explains everything away and they begin making up when they hear a radio broadcast make the claim that star Lucille Ball is a member of the Communist Party, which wasn’t a great party to be associated with at the time. But then we skip to an I Love Lucy show rehearsal and are introduced to the other characters from the show, William (J.K. Simmons) and Vivian (Nina Ariana). Then we see a meeting between Lucy, Desi, the big wigs of CBS and Phillip Morris who sponsor the show and we begin to get some sense of the relationship dynamics that exist between the all people that control the show and hold sway over the direction it goes. As the plot lines with the communist story, the marital problems between Lucy and Desi, the controlling entities of the hit show working out the kinks and fine tuning the next episode weave in and out, the guiding hand of Sorkin pay dividends in getting us invested in this story.

Once the I Love Lucy show gets cancelled for promoting communism ideals, the story has come together in a way that was almost surprising, then I remembered who the writer was. Although the ending was from a writing standpoint well crafted, it was somewhat uneven and at first glance even a bit off putting. Reflecting of the purpose of the film and what we as an audience are supposed to take away from Being The Ricardos, one can come to terms with it, but this won’t be the case for all audiences. Although the performances were all very good as I mentioned, I couldn’t get past the look of Nicole Kidman, she has such distinct features, I could never really see Lucy every time the camera was on her. But the rest of the visuals and the cinematography were pretty standard. The original score and music were all well done and added to the feel of the 1950’s television show themes. For most of the film my rating was hovering around a 7 but it pulled together in the end pretty well and I ended up with the weakest 8 I’ve probably given this year.

SUMMARY - For many people, including myself, I Love Lucy wasn’t a huge part of childhood, but even with that caveat there’s a good movie here that’s told really well. While Sorkin clearly hasn’t mastered the whole directing thing and this latest effort is clearly flawed, Being The movie about the ill-fated Ricardos couple, he leaves you hanging on most every word right to the end.