Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Writer/director: Aaron Sorkin, Amazon Prime.
Academy Award-winning Australian actress Nicole Kidman gives an unbelievable performance as American comedian and producer Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos.
Her resemblance is uncanny in Aaron Sorkin’s enthusiastic, but asymmetrical Oscar contender. Kidman has already won a 2022 Golden Globe Award for best actress in a drama for playing Ball in this film.
Red hair is the obvious likeness between Ball and Kidman, but the latter does justice to her role, coming to the forefront with a performance that’s intricate and distinctive. Kidman plays the iconic character with a confident, informal composure – and a sharp sense of spitefulness. Kidman worked with a movement and dialect coach which did wonders!
We get a look into a week in the life of Lucille Ball from behind-the-scenes of an episode of I Love Lucy. We watch a woman navigate new ground, getting insight into what it takes to be an actor, to do comedy and have a relationship. There’s also a sense of the turmoil in her personal and professional life.
On the other hand, Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Skyfall) plays Ball’s Cuban-American actor-musician-bandleader husband Desi Arnaz – and looks nothing like him. Instead of impersonating, Bardem successfully channels the aura of Arnaz. They make for a classic power couple as they traverse the stressful week ahead of them and reflected are the stormy ups and downs of their marriage and showbiz partnership.
The duo’s subtleties are the quintessence of Being the Ricardos. Coming alive are the impressive backdrops and the production beats of a bygone era. It’s told from three perspectives: interviews with the show’s three lead writers: Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll; flashbacks; and preparations for a live taping in 1953.
Then there are also the co-stars William Frawley (J.K. Simmons) and Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda). Through it all, Lucy and Desi squabble and riposte with a taxing week ahead.
Being the Ricardos is actually a drama about a comedian. Sorkin does not recreate what has-been. Rather, the spotlight is on the “politics and dynamics of the time” along with the comedy. The focus is on the story of the couple … which is credible.
