Being the Ricardos

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Seems okay. When I read that Kidman was gonna play Lucy, I couldn’t see it at all. Her voice as Lucy is not quite right as she still sounds like Kidman & Lucy had a distinctive voice, but definitely something I will at least watch.
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When I was a kid the whole country tuned into watch I Love Lucy on Monday nights. There was never a bad one. It remains one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, which influenced hundreds of others, and is still funny today.

I hope Being the Ricardos is 1/10th as good as the original series. Lucy and Desi's real life have been fodder for many books and articles, so if the film sticks to the facts, it should be a winner.



Yeah I am Aldo hoping this one is best picture quality though have to say I was not a fan of Arron sorkins steve jobs movie. Liked the social network though so here is to hoping it is more like that one.



"Honor is not in the Weapon. It is in the Man"
I have to agree. It just didn't agree wtih me...the only actor who actually looked like their onscreen counterpart was Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance. It just felt meh to me.
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Here's some commentary:

Being the Ricardos

It’s impossible to overstate the massive viewership and the impact that I Love Lucy had in the United States, especially during the initial series that ran from 1951-1957, and then in an extended run of 13 one hour specials each season from 1957-1960. The 1952-53 season alone had an astonishing Nielsen rating of 67.3, which meant that of the households that owned a TV, over 67% of them tuned into I Love Lucy every Monday night from 9-9:30. To put that into perspective, some other more recent popular series had the following ratings at their largest: Cheers- 21.3; Seinfeld- 20.6; NCIS- 13.5; and The Big Bang Theory- 12.8.

It seemed as though EVERYONE watched that show, and most everybody talked about it the following day at school, at the workplace, or over the back yard fence. I personally missed very few of the initial 180 half-hour episodes, and also the subsequent The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show for its three seasons. In addition there were two movies with Lucy & Desi: The Long, Long Trailer, and Forever, Darling.

So it was an exceedingly tall order for writer/director Aaron Sorkin to tackle this subject matter, not the least of which was that few people younger than 65 would have much first hand knowledge of the series, or of the star’s and cast’s involvement and private lives, apart from those who have watched the shows in continuous syndication.

Unfortunately the movie was overly ambitious and a bit scattered. The time period was announced to be recounting one week in the production of the I Love Lucy show and the activity around it. But during that span they inserted too much Lucy-Desi lore and series incidents. They also invented some PC exchanges, evidently as a nod to current fashion. For example they had one of the lady writers complain to Lucy that she was being subservient to Ricky, that it made her too submissive. But Lucy had to explain to her that the show’s premise was based on her ditziness, comic deceitfulness, and her always unsuccessful attempts to be an entertainer like Ricky. Lucy was THE focus on the series, and everything was written to feature her and her antics, although Ethel Mertz was often involved as well.

In the main, the casting could have been a tad better. Javier Bardem as Ricky Ricardo was the standout impression. He looked and acted the part from start to finish. It must have been a real challenge to cast for Lucy. Reportedly Cate Blanchett was originally cast, but eventually dropped out. It’s hard to say if she could have been made up to look more like Lucy than did Nicole Kidman. Kidman did look the part when they had her made up like Lucy in the TV broadcasts portions, and her voice impression was oftentimes reminiscent of Lucy’s voice. But at other times she simply looked and sounded like Nicole Kidman. Nina Arianda was passable as Ethel Mertz, although Vivian Vance was never slender-- always rather dumpy. And J.K. Simmons didn’t look a thing like Fred Mertz, but he managed to be somewhat suggestive of him in the Lucy show portions. His voice and manner were not close.

The opening put me in mind a little of the some of the beginning scenes in Citizen Kane, with aged participants commenting on “how it was”. Actually that worked pretty well. But ironically, despite the fly by mention of some important characteristics of the show, they wasted way too much time on one
routine that Lucy wasn’t happy with, insisted on being changed, and the drama surrounding it. There was also too much emphasis on HUAC’s charge that Lucy had been suspected of being a communist. She was not only never a communist, but that entire flap raced by at the time with barely a notice by the public.

Still, it was enjoyable to revisit some of the style and history of the I Love Lucy show. Perhaps if they had not insisted on getting big name actors for some of the important characters, and relaxed out the number of scenes and pacing, they might have had a hit. The true story of not only I Love Lucy, but also Ball’s and Arnaz’s real lives and projects both during and after the series is a major and unique tale of Hollywood success. Although this film was intended as only a snapshot of their story, it had thepotential to be much better.

Doc’s rating: 6/10



This was okay. Not great. It was odd how some of the lines had the feeling of a Sorkin line, the self-assuredness that they were quick and witty...but they weren't. Or at least, not as much as we've come to expect. His writing is sometimes called smug, and sometimes it is, but it's also usually simultaneously good enough to earn its smugness. Here, not as much.

I'm being a little tough on this film because when I see Sorkin has written something I have very high expectations for it, so "Pretty Good" ends up registering as a disappointment. I don't think the drama was particularly well-established, either: as is a Sorkin trope, we have the Extremely Competent person who Cares About Their Craft and comes off as abrasive and demanding to everyone else, but they seem to just sort of exist. His better stories are the ones where you have some understanding of why this person is so exacting (Steve Jobs, occasionally on The West Wing), so that the character isn't just a preternaturally skilled force of nature.

Still, good movie, glad I saw it.

Oh, the title is awful. Why is "Being" there? I suppose to play into the "one week in the life of" thing, but I don't think it conveys that, and he's done biopics in the past that took slices without needing to display that in the title itself.

Just call it The Ricardos.



Oh, the title is awful. Why is "Being" there? I suppose to play into the "one week in the life of" thing, but I don't think it conveys that, and he's done biopics in the past that took slices without needing to display that in the title itself.
Was it supposed to convey Kidman & Bardem “being” the Ricardos” though, obviously, we know they’re not really Lucy & Desi?



Yeah, maybe. I think it sorta might be conveying that they're playing the characters in the show even though they're not like that in real life, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, it tins off my ear, for whatever reason.



Yeah, maybe. I think it sorta might be conveying that they're playing the characters in the show even though they're not like that in real life, but I'm not sure.
Yes, I think we’re both saying the same thing.



My simple minded way of determining if a movie has a bad title is if I can never remember it. I have been calling this Lucy and Desi almost from the get go which is weird.
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Yeah, maybe. I think it sorta might be conveying that they're playing the characters in the show even though they're not like that in real life, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, it tins off my ear, for whatever reason.

I agree that the title is awkward as hell. Sounds like a reality show to me.