Being The Ricardos is a biopic written and directed by Aaron Sorkin about one fictitious week in the life of Lucille Ball(Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz(Javier Bardem) where Ball's communist ties are called into question, Arnaz's infidelity becomes public, and the two clash with the CBS brass on including Ball's real life pregnancy in her(their) legendary show I Love Lucy. Seems unbelievably fortuitous all these things would converge and resolve at the same time, you bet!
Bottom line Kidman and Bardem are miscast, they are wonderful actors but they are primarily wonderful dramatic actors. And they simply do not have the comedic wattage required to pull of their characters, it doesn't help the overall the tone of the movie is bizarrely dour and melodramatic. There is so much glowering, so many pensive silences, so many arguments, this juxtaposed with what we know of Ball as a person, I Love Lucy in general, and with the look of the production itself(glitzy, smooth, old Hollywood), taken together it simply doesn't work. The support cast fair much better, particularly staff writers played by Alia Shawkat and Jake Lacy who are actually allowed to be funny, but even then there's an over-seriousness about the whole thing that renders it boring. It attempts to make comments about politics, marriage, and feminism and fails across the board while at the same time not doing legendary comedian Lucille Ball much, if any, justice. Sure those are big shoes to fill but no shit. There's so much about the casting and script itself that seem not properly thought out.
It has the same overly slick look of Sorkin's 2020 directorial effort Trial Of The Chicago 7 and has the same issues, it tries to do too much(both in theme and story) and in so doing renders it's characters two dimensional, it slots famous non-US born actors in famous historical/cultural figures of the US and not that there's anything inherently wrong with that(Daniel Kaluuya was excellent as Fred Hampton in Judas And The Black Messiah) however it is certainly more complicated than simply slotting whatever A-list actor you can. This is bolstered up by the wide reported news that both Kidman and Bardem attempted to exit the movie prior to production once they discovered the massive and profound impact both Ball and Arnaz had/have on US culture. Not that they fail completely but their performances are overly studied, impressions, without that hot cord of energy that Ball and Arnaz possessed.
If there's one thing Being The Ricardos does succeed in it is creating a desire to watch I Love Lucy.
Currently in theaters and streaming on Amazon.
Don't See It.
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