• Being the Ricardos

2/2/22 (Wed)

Lucy doesn’t come out looking too good in this portrait of a shaky marriage. The movie shows a week in the life of a television show, from first reading to live performance, but what a week: in addition to much meddling with the script and blocking, Lucy finds herself accused in the media of being a Communist, which could destroy her career; announces she’s pregnant, which could derail the series for several months; and finds evidence that Ricky is cheating on her, which could destroy her marriage. Those various plot strands move forward with the help of scattered flashbacks from various points of her life – e.g., her first encounter with Desi, her failed attempt at movie stardom – making for a very eventful film. It shows her as something of a control freak, both in the studio and at home. She dismisses the director’s ideas for her own staging, keeps Vivian Vance from looking too glamorous, bullies the executives, and seems to keep her feelings in check even at home. This is all to the frustration of Desi, who seems to be doing his best to keep her happy. It’s no wonder that he played around on the side when this is what he’s coming home to. William Frawley warns her that she is emasculating Desi in front of everyone, and she tries to correct her ways. But second fiddle doesn’t seem to suit her. And it’s hard to call her gracious; even in her moment of triumph when Desi has gotten no less than J. Edgar Hoover to vouch for her, she cuts him down in private with evidence of his cheating. For an actress with such great timing on stage, she certainly didn’t seem to have it in real life. Also, she didn’t show as much respect for the writers in the film than she did in real life, where she credited them in public on many occasions as the main factor behind the show’s success. I wonder which Lucy in this case was the real one.

Given that her two children were executive directors of the film, I have to assume that this reflects her actual personality, which is also in sync with the lack of warmth in her interviews and talk show appearances. It’s certainly a new side of Lucy, proving the adage that you don’t want to see how the sausages are made.

What we don’t get is how Lucy went from serious movie star to supreme physical comic, notwithstanding the brief scenes of her in the radio comedy. She and Desi honed their act on the road in front of live audiences, and I assume it was there that her character was truly born. I missed that. But I guess that wasn’t the point here.

No fault with the acting, which was wonderful across the board. Nicole Kidman was incredible as Lucy, especially in the black-and-white recreations of routines from the show, and Javier Bardem, Nina Arianda and especially JK Simmons were all superb. Linda Lavin and Alia Shawcat were the best of the rest as the older and younger Madelyn Pugh, but the cast was great throughout.

An interesting film. Now I’ll try to forget what I’ve seen and go back to loving Lucy. Sometimes it’s better not to know too much.