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Movie Review: Being the Ricardos

Mike Tyrkus

If you enter into Being the Ricardos expecting a tell-all scandal-ridden exposé of the beloved couple, you may be summarily disappointed. However, if you approach the film looking for an effectively told story of a couple wherein one party goes to the ends of the earth for the other in an attempt to make the relationship successful and the pain that is caused when that is not reciprocated, then you will be rewarded with one of the more honest and heartbreaking stories delivered by recent cinema.

The narrative of the film centers on one particular week during the production of the seminal sitcom I Love Lucy during which national newspapers are preparing a story that links star Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and the Communist Party. During the five days of production before the actual taping of the show, the film bounces between closed-door meetings and writers’ room discussions and several non-linear flashbacks to pivotal moments in Lucy’s professional (and romantic) relationship with her husband, Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem).

Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, the film bears all of the hallmarks of his previous directorial efforts – The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) and Molly’s Game (2017) – as well as his more-widely known television work such as The West Wing (1999-2006), including long tracking shots of character winding their way through an entanglement of settings and obstacles, while constantly conversing in deliberate and consequential demeanor. In short, this film will not disappoint fans of Sorkin’s other work.

Nicole Kidman in “Being the Ricardos.”

Both Kidman and Bardem seem tailor-made for their respective roles as the beloved television couple. Kidman eerily inhabits Ball’s presence and delivers both the subject’s comedic and dramatic personas with an assertive performance that would be a star-making turn, were she not already, well Nicole Kidman. Similarly, Bardem infuses Arnaz with the charm and likability that allowed him to often behave the way that he did. J.K Simmons and Nina Arianda both deliver spectacular performances as show costars William Frawley and Vivian Vance.

Finely executed editing by Alan Baumgarten keeps the beautifully cinematography of Jeff Cronenweth moving along at a furious pace while never neglecting the details of Jon Hutman’s production design or Ellen Brill’s set decoration. This is a period film that actually succeeds in transporting the viewer to the period in which it is set without taking away from the modern construction of the story arc.

As a history lesson on the creation of the beloved television show I Love Lucy, Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos delivers the goods and then some, giving the audience a chance to discover just how high the price tag of success can reach and how lonely it can be at the top once it’s climbed.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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