Josh Reviews Being the Ricardos
Being the Ricardos, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, takes place over an eventful week in the life of Lucille Ball and her husband (and co-star of I Love Lucy), Desi Arnaz. As we follow the creation of an episode of I Love Lucy, from the table-read through to its filming before a live stdio audience, multiple behind-the-scenes dramas unfold, most notably the accusation that Lucille Ball was once a member of the Communist party. This was a threat that, in 1953, might have ended the show and Lucille Ball’s career.
I’m a big fan of Aaron Sorkin, and Being the Ricardos is another winner from his pen. (Keyboard?) The film zips along in an entertaining fashion, filled with Mr. Sorkin’s signature wit as well as drama. Mr. Sorkin has a very specific style, and while it might be easily caricatured (there are more people in this film who say some variation of “I need the room” than I’ve ever encountered in my entire life), and this style might not be for everyone, I love it a lot. I love the fast-paced, beautiful dialogue Mr. Sorkin writes, and, as always, I love how he’s able to wrap political statements into his stories set in the world of entertainment.
Mr. Sorkin has, for years, clearly been fascinated with depicting the behind-the-scenes stories of the creation of television. He based three TV shows on that premise: Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and The Newsroom. And so Mr. Sorkin is the perfect writer to tell this story, and I love his choice to frame all the different stories in this film within the one-week process of bringing an episode of I Love Lucy to the screen. I was endlessly fascinated by the minutia of that process that Mr. Sorkin so entertainingly brought to light here. I particularly loved the way the film periodically stopped to show us Lucille Ball’s great genius at figuring out a comedic routine, and how she was able to transform a written script into comedic magic by the time the episode was filmed at the end of the week.
Being the Ricardos is a very funny movie about the creation of an episode of one of the great TV comedies of all time. However, this film is more drama than comedy. There is character drama: Lucy and Desi struggle with their marriage; we see the feuding between the actors who played Fred and Ethel; an also the struggles between Lucy and the actress who played Ethel. It’s also a story about the Red Scare and McCarthyism that has unfortunate resonance to be found in the politics of the present day.
I had some doubts when I read that Nicole Kidman was being cast as Lucille Ball. She seemed all wrong for Lucy to me. Well, wow, let me admit that I was wrong. Ms. Kidman is absolutely terrific as Lucy. She’s somehow able to perfectly embody Lucy, her voice, her look, and her attitude. It’s not an impersonation, though. While it looks like Ms. Kidman sports some prosthetic and make-up effects to help create an impression of Lucy, this isn’t a case where an actor has tried to completely physically transform themselves. But that’s what makes Ms. Kidman’s performance such an impressive achievement. She creates Lucille Ball mostly through her ACTING. Javier Bardem is every bit Ms. Kidman’s match as Desi Arnaz. I love Mr. Bardem in this role. He’s so full of life as Desi, so filled with charisma and force of will. He and Ms. Kidman have terrific chemistry together, both when we see their romantic connection and also when we see them at each other’s throats.
As much as I loved the film’s portrayals of Lucy and Desi, I was equally in love of their portrayals of Fred and Ethel. The great J.K. Simmons plays William Frawley, the actor who played Fred, and he is so memorable in this role. Mr. Simmons is entertainingly acerbic and blustery while also showing us Mr. Frawley’s heart and depth of feeling. Equally great is Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance, the actress who played Ethel. I loved getting a glimpse into Ms. Vance’s struggles playing this popular character in a super-successful show who was, nevertheless, usually the butt of the joke about how ugly she looked. It was interesting getting to see her struggles — along with Lucille Ball’s — as a woman in the male-dominated TV business, trying to find her way and carve out some dignity and clout for herself.
Same goes for Alia Shawkat as Madelyn Pugh, the only female writer on the show. (At least, she’s the only female writer we ever see on screen.) Ms. Shawkat is very funny and also does a great job showing us the tight walk that her character has to walk as one of the only women in an important behind-the-scenes position on the show. It was great fun seeing Ms. Shawkat in so many scenes with her Arrested Development co-star Tony Hale, who plays Jess Oppenheimer, the producer and head writer on I Love Lucy. Mr. Hale is so perfect playing this character who, while clearly talented, is also a bit of a hang-dog third banana after Lucy and Desi. I also enjoyed Jake Lacy as writer Bob Carroll, and Clark Gregg as one of the suits Lucy and Desi have to fight to allow Lucy to be pregnant on the show (to mirror Ms. Ball’s real-life pregnancy).
Several of Aaron Sorkin’s scripts have had a framing structure to the story in which characters look back on the events of the story from a future date, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see that device utilized again here. It works well; it was a fun surprise for me to see different actors cast as older versions of the characters in the film. I’m not sure that decide was entirely necessary, but I enjoyed it; it was a helpful way to get some context and exposition for the story out of the way in a fun and non-intrusive manner. I also enjoyed seeing the extended flashback sequences within the film that charted the story of Lucy & Desi’s romance.
There’s some futzing with the actual reality to be found here. Most notably, the controversy over Lucy’s getting pregnant, and her and Desi’s decision to depict that on television — a first for American TV — actually happened long before the crisis over Lucy’s being accused of being a Communist. But I can go with these dramatic liberties. As was the case in Mr. Sorkin’s script for Steve Jobs, it’s clear he has compressed the timeline of various storylines for dramatic effect. In both cases, it works well for the story being told.
I enjoyed this film quite a lot! This might not equal Mr. Sorkin’s most towering works (The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Social Network), but it’s terrifically entraining and with some real depth. It’s worth your time.
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