Being the Ricardos
I can see Nicole Kidman getting an Oscar nod for this one.
I love Lucy is one of the most revolutionary TV shows of all time. Things that we take for granted when watching sitcoms this show created (for instance if they were to do a sequel to this movie it could center around the fact that a rerun did not exist prior to I Love Lucy).
Many younger fans may not know anything about the show but I’m old enough to live through a time in which Lucy was a part of a handful of choices on TV, and lucky for me I Love Lucy was genuinely funny. This made the movie interesting to find out about Lucille Ball, the woman who played Lucy Ricardo.
The movie is actually a composite of a few events in the life of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz squeezed into a format that looks like a day in the life on a TV show. Being the Riccardos showcases the week it takes to make one episode of I Love Lucy. From a Monday table read to the Friday filming. Inside of this week is added certain highlights that most likely span the entire length of the show. Events like: Lucille being investigated as a communist, Desi’s infidelity, and two things that I did not know about, Vivian Vance’s contempt with being Lucy’s less desirable sidekick Ethel Mertz and the challenges of being Madelyn Pugh if not the first, one of the first women writing on a television show.
Nicole Kidman gave an excellent performance in this flick. Its one of these things where I can see Oscar written all over it. She played Lucille Ball better than she played Lucy Riccardo but that may have been the point cause we got some inside of what a genius Ball is (Thank god the only “issue “with this story is that men could not stomach such brilliance coming from a woman and not something like Cliff Huxtable’s very big difference from the man who played him).
Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz was amazing as well. This is a situation where they could have messed this up trying to do a bad imitation of Ricky Ricardo, but it does feel like Bardem did his research to do it right.
Being the Riccardos could be considered an ensemble cast cause even though it centers on Lucille Ball and her husband, its focus on their iconic show met we got a lot a detail that blended in very well without being overwhelming. We got to see a boat load of characters played very well by some recognizable faces.
Aaron Sorkin did an absolutely wonderful job telling the tale of the Queen of Comedy.
