Being The Ricardos will be in theaters December 10th and on Prime Video December 21st.
Just in time for Oscar season, Academy Award Winners Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star in Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos. It is a biographical look at one week of behind-the-scenes drama on the set of I Love Lucy. With a script this entertaining and performances this stellar, there’s sure to be more Oscar gold for everyone involved.
Sorkin blew me away last year when he wrote and directed Trial of the Chicago Seven.
Being the Ricardo’s deserves similar acclaim, thanks to a script brimming with Sorkin’s trademark wit. There are as many laugh-out-loud moments as an actual episode of I Love Lucy. The casting initially drew some detractors as the two leads look very little like Lucy and Desi Arnaz. However, Kidman and Bardem’s performances should dispel any negativity. What they lack in resemblance, they make up for in inhabiting the physicality of the two stars.
Not an easy feat by any means, given that Lucille Ball is still considered the most remarkable physical comedienne in television history. Javier Bardem, known for his deep voice and thick Spanish accent, seems tasked with adding a Cuban accent on top of it. At times Desi is genuinely difficult to understand. Viewers at home may be encouraged to turn on the subtitles. Still, Bardem shines the most when he starts singing and dancing.
Arrested Development costars Alia Shawkat and Tony Hale play a staff writer and the showrunner, respectively. What helps give context to those scenes that contain older references and television terminology are is when the actors play older versions of the I Love Lucy writers and interview them in faux-documentary style, Nina Arianda, The Office’s Jake Lacy, and Agents of SHIELD’s Clark Gregg round out the supporting cast. Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons plays a gruff, sarcastic, and booze-addled William Frawley. The banter between him and his costars drew some of the biggest laughs in the film.
Verdict
I give Being The Ricardos a 9 out of 10. Aaron Sorkin hits it out of the park yet again and this film is sure to see plenty of love this awards season.
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