Review: Nicole Kidman impresses as TV icon Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin's 'Being the Ricardos'
Everyone loved Lucille Ball. And maybe not everyone, but folks who enjoy entertaining deep-dives into old-school Hollywood, will love Nicole Kidman playing the pioneering TV icon.
Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, “Being the Ricardos” (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters and streaming on Amazon Prime now) unfolds during one hellish production week of the 1950s hit “I Love Lucy” sitcom as its super-popular married stars, Lucille (Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), navigate a nonstop barrage of personal and professional crises. The film also fleshes out their passionate and tumultuous relationship, and while it lacks a strong overall narrative focus, "Ricardos" makes the most of a strong supporting cast and Sorkin’s excellent, banter-filled script.
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Even before they show up for the Monday morning table read for a new episode featuring flighty redhead Lucy and her Cuban bandleader husband Ricky Ricardo, things are awry for the power couple: A gossip columnist publicly implies that Lucille is a Communist (at a time when just the mere whiff of that label threatened entire careers), and Desi’s rumored philandering has hit the front page of a major tabloid. Once they get to set, they’re surrounded by more drama.
Constantly stressed executive producer/head writer Jess Oppenheimer (Tony Hale) butts heads with Desi, a smart businessman who pretty much runs the place. Lucille wants to punch that week’s director (Christopher Denham). And writers Madelyn (Alia Shawkat) and Bob (Jake Lacy) constantly needle each other, though it’s nothing compared to the vicious vitriol slung back and forth between actors Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda) and William Frawley (J.K. Simmons), who play the Ricardos’ landlords and friends Ethel and Fred Mertz on the sitcom.
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“Ricardos” excels when reveling in the everyday behind-the-scenes TV chaos that Sorkin also mined with his series “Sports Night” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” Everybody has a different role to play as the bedlam piles on, and the filmmaker tosses in tons of wit and ratchets up the tension all the way to a satisfying and moving finale that takes place on show night.
Interspersed are flashbacks to key past moments for Lucille and Desi, from them meeting on the 1940 musical “Too Many Girls” to how she fought for her musical husband to be her TV spouse. Though interesting, especially if you don’t know a lot of their story, these sequences lean too biopic-y and undermine the forward momentum of the main plot. The flights of fantasy that Sorkin does utilize well are black-and-white forays into Lucille’s mind as she works out various “I Love Lucy” problems and ideas, including Ball’s infamous grape-stomping bit.
Kidman is terrific whether playing the high-voiced, ditzy sitcom Lucy or the real-life Lucille, who’s sexy, headstrong and a bit of a hard case when it comes to perfecting aspects of her show. Bardem has been the subject of some representational criticism – as a Spanish actor playing a well-known Cuban cultural figure – and while he doesn’t nail the more lighthearted aspects of Desi’s screen presence, he’s successful at inhabiting Desi as a serious industry player. Bardem and Kidman also have a nice chemistry throughout, from scenes of relationship turmoil to those of a more playful variety.
Arianda is a standout playing Vivian, a Broadway star who harbors resentment about her frumpy role opposite Lucille as well as playing the much-younger wife of Frawley. Simmons, scene-stealing national treasure that he is, gets a bunch of Sorkin’s best lines as the grumpy, hard-drinking ex-Vaudevillian fiercely loyal to his co-stars.
While “Being the Ricardos” is fine when it tries to be a throwback history lesson, Sorkin’s latest is far better as a turbulent, fictionalized look behind the curtain of a seminal classic.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Being the Ricardos' review: Nicole Kidman's terrific as Lucille Ball
