Being the Ricardos (2021)

[Conotocarious]

I’m just about to start episode 3. I think sometimes the early early stuff can be a bit boring although I thought her medical malady and its weird treatment was kind of interesting. 

[Sarahsmile416]

Finishing up the last episode and I don’t think I have cried this hard in a long time.  The podcast certainly dragged in the beginning but after Desi and Lucy met it truly got better.  The last few were very sad, but good.  

 

[Conotocarious]

Episode 4 tomorrow for me!

[Scarlett45]

I saw this today virtually with a friend. 
 

I was far more impressed than I expected to be. I thought the costuming was great, the writing was solid, and Nicole did a good job as Lucille Ball, Lucille Ricardo not so much, but I did understand all of her motivations as Lucille Ball. I liked Javier in the role of Desi. 
 

I thought her and Desi’s relationship was portrayed pretty accurately. Lucille said in her autobiography, that she and Desi were strongly attracted to each other and respected each other- but they didn’t LIKE each other. I think Desi was never going to be the type of husband Lucille wanted, (he fucked around A LOT) and after she did have the international success, and her two kids (Lucille very much wanted her kids but admitted she wasn’t very interested in caregiving), there was no point in continuing to waste her energy trying to change him. Also what you will tolerate at 28 isn’t what you’ll tolerate at 48. 

[kassa]

I enjoyed it, but agree with most critiques. When Kidman tried to do Lucy's voice it had a weird almost Fran Drescher vibe to it. As Lucille it was more natural.

I've heard of Bardem but couldn't tell you what he's been in. Is he considered sexy? If so, this project was a bad move for him because he didn't have a smidgen of Arnaz' charisma. I thought his acting was fine, but Desi was really magnetic and that didn't come through, no matter how many words they gave him to speak really fast.

[Simon Boccanegra]

5 hours ago, kassa said:

I've heard of Bardem but couldn't tell you what he's been in.

Bardem's iconic performance (for which he won an Oscar) was as a merciless assassin in the Coens' No Country for Old Men. I doubt anyone considered him sexy in that, but perhaps in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (as a Spanish lothario romancing Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, and Penélope Cruz) and some other movies he's done.

I do think he's a great actor. I also saw some of his pre-stardom work in his native language for Pedro Almodóvar.

Being the Ricardos is decent. It has the hallmarks of other "fact-based" movies Aaron Sorkin has written or written/directed, and I'd know who the auteur was within two scenes if I didn't go in knowing, but it isn't one of the best of them. Well below The Social Network, Moneyball, and Trial of the Chicago 7, slightly below Molly's Game, about even with Steve Jobs. I actually thought the work of the actors was one of the better things about it.  

Edited January 11, 2022 by Simon Boccanegra
Because Coens were plural at that time.

[Browncoat]

I watched this last night, and despite major misgivings about Nicole Kidman in the role, I thought she did a good job.  In fact, I thought all the cast did well.  The role didn't call for zany Lucy, it called more for serious businessperson Lucille -- Debra Messing would have been horrible (being horrible is par for the course with Debra, IMO).

They really packed a lot into that one week, and, while I know most of it did not all happen at the same time, I thought it was good that they addressed all the elephants on that stage -- Vivian and Bill's dislike of each other/bickering, Bill's drinking, Lucy's opinion of Viv's weight, Desi's infidelities, and of course Lucy being accused of being a Communist.  The only part of that that bothered me even a little was the J. Edgar Hoover part -- that was stretching things a bit too far, I think.

The time jumps didn't bother me.  I thought it was fairly easy to tell when we were, and I really liked the "interviews" with the older staffers. 

Overall, I liked it quite a lot.

[luvthepros]

On 11/11/2021 at 7:36 PM, khyber said:

Desi was so much better looking than Bardem.

I didn't realize HOW good looking he was when he was young. I can see why Lucille Ball fell for him......

[luvthepros]

On 12/17/2021 at 7:50 PM, Crashcourse said:

Nicole Kidman's eyes as Lucy look weird and creepy.  

Hands down, Debra Messing would have been a much better fit for the role of Lucy. Was she even considered for the role in this movie? Anyone know? I thought maybe Messing was too old to play Lucy but she is 53 years old to Nicole's 54 years old so that was not the reason.

Messing's Vitavitavegimen routine on Will and Grace knocked it out of the park. Her look was perfect......perfect eyes, perfect nose (well sort of) and absolutely perfect mouth.

[luvthepros]

On 12/21/2021 at 11:43 PM, txhorns79 said:

Yeah, watch clips of her movies from the 1930s, then watch a clip from Here's Lucy in the 70s.  Her voice was significantly damaged by smoking.

The movie was just okay.  The actors are fine, but the story is fairly clumsy and I didn't love the structure of the movie. 

What I absolutely loved was watching the show come to life in the studio. The live orchestra and live audience, Desi warming up the audience, the cameras, the lights, the sets.......just LOVED that.

[HyeChaps]

It was interesting to see the writers working on more than one script. 

[luvthepros]

On 12/28/2021 at 10:41 PM, TattleTeeny said:

Yeah, I thought she was much more effective as Lucille Ball than as Lucy. But she was good enough, I guess, in those parts and I did think it was fun to see some of the show’s scenes re-created.

Just wondering if Lucille Ball was actually the brains behind Desi's "Honey, I'm home" shtick. Did she really come up with that line with all her brainstorming for that one episode that was featured in this movie?

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 1/26/2022 at 12:58 PM, luvthepros said:

Just wondering if Lucille Ball was actually the brains behind Desi's "Honey, I'm home" shtick. Did she really come up with that line with all her brainstorming for that one episode that was featured in this movie?

I thought she specifically said that Ricky typically entered with "honey, I'm home" and that would be better than the hands over the eyes gag. Not that she had come up with a new catchphrase for him. 

[JAYJAY1979]

Reason Nicole couldn't do Lucy Ricardo is because of all the botox and fillers.  Lucy had an expressive face so that was a hindrance.

 

[Gemma Violet]

On 1/12/2022 at 1:20 PM, Browncoat said:

I watched this last night, and despite major misgivings about Nicole Kidman in the role, I thought she did a good job.  In fact, I thought all the cast did well.  The role didn't call for zany Lucy, it called more for serious businessperson Lucille -- Debra Messing would have been horrible (being horrible is par for the course with Debra, IMO).

They really packed a lot into that one week, and, while I know most of it did not all happen at the same time, I thought it was good that they addressed all the elephants on that stage -- Vivian and Bill's dislike of each other/bickering, Bill's drinking, Lucy's opinion of Viv's weight, Desi's infidelities, and of course Lucy being accused of being a Communist.  The only part of that that bothered me even a little was the J. Edgar Hoover part -- that was stretching things a bit too far, I think.

The time jumps didn't bother me.  I thought it was fairly easy to tell when we were, and I really liked the "interviews" with the older staffers. 

Overall, I liked it quite a lot.

I agree with all of this.  I've always been a huge I Love Lucy fan, having watched each episode multiple times.  I knew about most of the stuff covered in the movie that's mentioned above, but of course had never heard about a J. Edgar Hoover phone call.  I guess Sorkin thought the way the situation was really resolved wasn't dramatic enough. 

I would have preferred someone other than Nicole Kidman, but I thought she did a fine job.  As the movie went on, I saw her as Lucy. 

I watched the movie last night and I came here to see the comments, thinking they would be mostly positive.  I'm frankly surprised there seems to be more negative comments than positive.  I loved the movie.  I used to be a big movie person, but in the last 20-30 years I've pretty much stopped watching movies (except TCM), so it takes a really good movie for me to last more than ten minutes in.  This kept my interest from start to finish.  I only wish it had been longer.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Gemma Violet

[Pickles Aplenty]

I was not impressed.  It was by no means a bad movie, but I feel like we've seen plenty of biopics just like it, and I'm worn out by actors portraying dead celebrities in an effort to get a little naked, gold man.  It's so completely stale. I'm over it.

I don't think Nicole Kidman's acting was bad, but I was so distracted by her face not moving.  If you're going to portray a legendary physical comedian, your face needs to be expressive.  She looked frozen and wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights.  Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz didn't work for me, either.  He was all wrong physically speaking, and he didn't have the same vibe at all.  I don't know how to explain it better than that, but I could never believe the two leads as their characters.  I was always watching Kidman and Bardem.

I know people are saying Debra Messing should have gotten the role, or Cate Blanchett, but I wonder why there has to be such a small pool to choose from?  I mean, I know why, Hollywood doesn't like actresses over the age of 35 and only a select few get to work in movies, but when the hell are we going to move past that?  That's all I kept thinking the entire movie.  So much talent out there that could have been tapped, but we keep using the same actresses, over and over again, for everything.  It frustrates me.

I will wrap it up by saying I didnt care about the story or the characters, but I was thrilled to see Buster Bluth and Maeby Funke together again onscreen.  I sat up in my seat and nearly squealed.  So, maybe it was all worth it.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Pickles Aplenty

[Spartan Girl]

We started a Prime Video free trial and finally watched it. Well, actually, we watched the old Lucy and Desi documentary from 1993 that Lucie Arnaz put together with their own home movies first — which was great, by the way. But this movie? Not so much.

On 2/11/2022 at 7:59 PM, Pickles Aplenty said:

I don't think Nicole Kidman's acting was bad, but I was so distracted by her face not moving.  If you're going to portray a legendary physical comedian, your face needs to be expressive.  She looked frozen and wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights.  Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz didn't work for me, either.  He was all wrong physically speaking, and he didn't have the same vibe at all.  I don't know how to explain it better than that, but I could never believe the two leads as their characters.  I was always watching Kidman and Bardem.

This exactly. They were just wrong for these parts. And seeing as how they won other Oscars for much better parts, I really don’t know why they had to get nominations for this.

JK Simmons did make me laugh as William, and whoever played Vivian looked just like her, so points for that I guess?

It was really hard not to think of Sorkin’s tone-deaf comments about how the show wouldn’t be funny today during the scene where the female writer tells Lucille her concerns about Lucy being infantilized. I just rolled my eyes at that bit.

The movie just lacked the same heart that was in the Lucy and Desi documentary. Don’t just end it with the postscript that they split after their final performance, at least add something about how they still remained close and got along better afterwards! Without it, it just feels like the overall message was like the show was all for nothing because the marriage was a big sham. But Sorkin is going to Sorkin.

[Pickles Aplenty]

14 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

It was really hard not to think of Sorkin’s tone-deaf comments about how the show wouldn’t be funny today during the scene where the female writer tells Lucille her concerns about Lucy being infantilized. I just rolled my eyes at that bit.

The movie just lacked the same heart that was in the Lucy and Desi documentary. Don’t just end it with the postscript that they split after their final performance, at least add something about how they still remained close and got along better afterwards! Without it, it just feels like the overall message was like the show was all for nothing because the marriage was a big sham. But Sorkin is going to Sorkin.

Yeah, it was all very cynical.  I consider the story of Lucy and Desi to be a great love story, the love just changed and evolved over time.  I wish more stories like that would be told.

As for the show not being funny anymore, well, I still laugh my ass off at the grape stomping scene and the Vitameatavegamin bit.  Sorkin can speak for himself.

[JAYJAY1979]

8 hours ago, Pickles Aplenty said:

Yeah, it was all very cynical.  I consider the story of Lucy and Desi to be a great love story, the love just changed and evolved over time.  I wish more stories like that would be told.

As for the show not being funny anymore, well, I still laugh my ass off at the grape stomping scene and the Vitameatavegamin bit.  Sorkin can speak for himself.

Sorkin is a snob