BEING THE RICARDOS
I must admit that I hadn't even planned on watching this initially. Whilst I am a fan of both Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, I was never a big fan of the “I Love Lucy” television show to care about a movie being made about it. I am also starting to tire of Hollywood films where big name actors play actors from the past, in what feels like nothing more than Oscar bait. However, as the film was on Amazon Prime and I was trying to see as many new films before the year's end, I decided to give “Being the Ricardos” a chance.........and I loved every minute of it!
I just was not expecting “Being the Ricardos” to be so rich in both content and drama. The film takes place over a week in Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's life just after a radio journalist outs Lucy for being a communist. Throughout the week, the couple and the producers of their television show must contend with the potential fallout from the “red scare”, whilst Lucy and Desi also have to deal with the personal dramas of Lucy's unknown pregnancy as well as Desi's suspected infidelity. Besides all this, we also get a great look at the behind the scenes machinations of how to put together a successful weekly television show, from the initial script read-through, all the way until filming in front of a live audience.
Nicole Kidman is just spectacular in her role of Lucille Ball. Kidman is good in almost everything she does, but this is the best performance I've seen from her in a very long while. Reading on the internet, too many people are getting caught up in the physical looks of both Kidman and Bardem and how they do not really look like the real life characters that they are playing. While this is true, Kidman brings the essence of Lucille Ball in every scene she is in. I mentioned earlier that I did not know much about Lucille Ball, but what I did know, Kidman gets spot on. The voice is perfect, the tough as nails woman she was off camera, with a quick wit ready to knock anyone down a peg or two with a well timed pun who she thought deserved it; Kidman nails it. But what I loved most about her performance was that it was not an impersonation of the real Lucy, rather Kidman creates a fully rounded character in her rendition of Lucy. We are witness to her fears of losing her show while at the same time not wanting to dumb herself and her decisions down as to how she briefly became part of the communist party in her early 20s. We see her work a scene constantly to make it as funny as it can be, while at other times we see her work another scene under the guise of comedy, but really in an attempt to have some control in her life which sees spiralling out of control. We also see her at pains as she suspects that the man she loves, maybe having an affair. There is so much going on with Lucy, and Kidman encapsulates this all in her performance.
Likewise, Javier Bardem is also excellent as Desi Arnaz. Unlike Kidman, who in the film bares a passing resemblance to Lucy, Bardem looks nothing like the real life Arnaz, but again I totally believed he was him here. Like with Kidman, this is not an impersonation but a fully rounded character, albeit a flawed one. Arnaz is also dealing with so much, the implications of Lucy's past connection with the communist party and if that means the show will be cancelled, convincing the network to let the character of Lucy be pregnant on the show the same time Lucille herself is, not to mention the troubles with his marriage. Throughout it all, Bardem comes across as loyal to Lucy as anyone possible, always having her back, and he deals with everything in a friendly and pleasant manner, but is not a pushover. You can feel the power he has on the show, but he doesn't use it in a controlling manner. The two of them together, Kidman and Bardem, are just outstanding. They have fantastic chemistry and bounce off each other beautifully, especially with the fast paced dialogue.
I have so much more to say about “Being the Ricardos” and I will get a chance to talk about them in my top twenty list (#spoilers......it made the list), but for now I will say that as well as the performances which are outstanding, the film is very well written, quite amusing in parts (I laughed a lot in this), is poignant and at two hours long, it just flew by. I was not expecting to love this like I did, and it was definitely my biggest surprise for 2021.
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