Review: BeingTheRicardos reduces Lucille Ball to an Aaron Sorkin character.
in theaters December 10, is much ado about nothing. The film opens with a gossip rag and a rumor-laden newscast that sendNicole Kidmanrespectively—into a tizzy. The tabloid claims Desi has been hanging around with another woman and splashes an incriminating photo on the cover to boot; on the radio, House Un-American Activities Committee investigator William Wheeler accuses Ball of being a communist.
’s slice-of-life biopic is treated not as essential detail, but awards fodder. What that leaves us with is Ball’s creative process for not only performing but perfecting comedy. In Sorkin’s telling, she worked not in concert with’s writers room, but often in defiance of them; her imagination, represented by black-and-white sitcom scenes she sees in her mind, becomes a tool to demonstrate her superior intelligence.
In the midst of various conflicts that pop up over the course of a few days, the Ricardos talk gamely with their sharp-witted staff. Costar Vivian Vance is losing weight against Ball’s wishes because she believes the show has taken her punching bag role too far. In a pretty odious exchange, Ball seems to win out by exclaiming that most American women look like Vance , not Ball—the latter makes it clear that any privacy or ownership Vance may feel over her body has been sold to that audience.
And what of casting Bardem, a Spanish actor, as the Cuban émigré Arnaz? Despite his talents, Bardem can’t seem to meaningfully approximate the posture of a man who lionises Americanness after losing everything he had to communism in Cuba. We get an Arnaz who’s charming and assertive, but otherwise uninteresting. It’s tempting to imagine what an actor like, who’s also not Cuban, but immigrated from Colombia to New York City as a child, would have done with the role.
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