亚洲天堂

Skip to content

Review: Sorkin goes behind the scenes of Lucy and Desi

鈥楤eing the Ricardos鈥 delivers an earnest, smart picture of a complex woman
27471375_web1_20211208091216-61b0be3ced6e2c69b6747814jpeg
Nicole Kidman, a cast member in 鈥淏eing the Ricardos,鈥 poses at the premiere of the film, Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

If things had gone according to plan, Lucille Ball would have been a major movie star.

Instead, she had to settle for being the queen of television comedy for over 25 years. Not exactly a lousy alternative. But the new film does make one wonder if Ball may have had a few other successful careers, like director (and not just of her own show) had she been born just a few years later.

In Aaron Sorkin鈥檚 loving and sharp dramatization of a particularly fraught week during the making of 鈥淚 Love Lucy,鈥 Ball, as played by Nicole Kidman, is painted as serious and shrewd, someone who can visualize a scene and the audience reaction to it on the first read of a script. She knows in an instant if a joke or a beat will work and is not shy about letting everyone know when it doesn鈥檛.

Though Ball was a famous perfectionist, in 鈥淏eing the Ricardos鈥 we are catching her at a heightened and stressful moment in which a few major life moments coalesce on top of the everyday burdens of trying to put together an episode by the Friday taping. Not only is she worried about her husband鈥檚 fidelity (Javier Bardem plays Desi Arnaz) and convincing the network and prudish sponsors to let her be pregnant on the show, she鈥檚 also being accused of being a Communist which could be the end of 鈥淚 Love Lucy.鈥 S

o naturally she diverts her attention to a dinner scene that鈥檚 not working.

Sorkin cuts back in time and forward so that the writers and showrunner can help narrate everything documentary-style. And although it鈥檚 not attempting to depict Lucille鈥檚 whole life, he does make sure to show the origins of their courtship and relationship, which happened to coincide with the end of Lucille鈥檚 time at RKO (and her shot at movie stardom).

While no one is going to mistake either Kidman or Bardem for either of their real-life counterparts, they were hired to be actors, not mimics and do a terrific job bringing to life the spirit of their characters off-camera lives, illustrating a full, complex, adult relationship.

But 鈥淏eing the Ricardos鈥 really shines in the wings, with the depiction of the tireless writers (Alia Shawkat as Madelyn Pugh and Jake Lacy as Bob Carroll Jr.), the hangdog showrunner (Tony Hale as Jess Oppenheimer) and the bickering supporting players (Nina Arianda, transcendent as Vivian Vance and J.K. Simmons as William Frawley). It may not be the most pleasant environment, but it is romantic in that classic Hollywood way 鈥 full of ego, banter, barbs and breakthroughs that, for better or worse, you鈥檇 never get on a Zoom call.

Sorkin bites off a lot here 鈥 he wants this film to be about everything. And the dialogue is so typically snappy that he basically gets away with it.

It鈥檚 practically criminal how easy it would be to watch performers like Shawkat, Arianda and Simmons throw jabs at one another and each get their own arc to chew on. Shawkat is the lone woman in the writers鈥 room trying to carve out a career for herself while making sure Lucy isn鈥檛 infantilized. Arianda is the show鈥檚 punching bag and it鈥檚 starting to get to her. And Simmons is the prickly washed-up drunk until the script needs him to be the wise washed up drunk (and he鈥檚 very good at both).

Lucille is a bit more of an enigma, harder to love and embrace. She never pretended to be her on screen character and like so many great comedians seemed to save it all for the stage. As in 鈥淢olly鈥檚 Game鈥 Sorkin perhaps overreaches with his therapy insights, positing that deep down all Lucille wanted was a place that felt like home.

And it all would have been perfectly fine without the Communist subplot, but that鈥檚 just there to help all the other dramatic revelations come out. 鈥淏eing the Ricardos鈥 is a Sorkin event through and through and an earnest, smart picture of a complex woman and, like her show, it all goes down so smoothly you barely even get a chance to appreciate the labor behind it.

鈥淏eing the Ricardos,鈥 an Amazon Studios release in theaters Friday and streaming on Dec. 21, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for 鈥渓anguage.鈥 Running time: 125 minutes. Three stars out of four. ___

MPAA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

鈥擫indsey Bahr, The Associated Press





(or

亚洲天堂

) document.head.appendChild(flippScript); window.flippxp = window.flippxp || {run: []}; window.flippxp.run.push(function() { window.flippxp.registerSlot("#flipp-ux-slot-ssdaw212", "Black Press Media Standard", 1281409, [312035]); }); }