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Being the Ricardos Movie Review

Being the Ricardos is a 2021 biographical drama film directed by Aaron Sorkin and starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem. It’s such a problematic movie.

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“You all work for me“

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This is a biopic about Lucille Ball first and foremost, but also about Desi Arnaz, their personal life and the behind-the-scenes of the filming of ‘I Love Lucy’. This show was a seminal piece of television that was the first highly popular and still classic sitcom that is endearing and very amusing. But you wouldn’t think it’s any good judging by the snippets of it in this movie.

Yes, the film makes the fatal mistake of throwing this iconic the show under the bus. Apparently, Sorkin himself admitted that he thinks a show is dated by today’s standards. So, a director who dislikes a show makes a movie about that show? That sounds reasonable.

And that disdain from him fuels those horrendous filming scenes that are simultaneously painfully unfunny and poorly acted. Lucille’s OCD about every single detail while filming painted her in a very poor light while none of her gifted comedic talents were on display here. We hear that she is terrific at physical comedy, but we are never shown any of that, and the result is this very awkward biopic that mistreats its subjects to such an extraordinary degree that it made me wonder why this picture even exists in the first place.

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The casting was absolutely horrible on this movie. None of the actors look or sound the part. The filming scenes were particularly terrible, but even though they fare better as the actors and not the show’s characters, it still took me a sweet time to get used to these famous actors play the celebrities that they do not resemble in the slightest.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Javier Bardem’s turn. Wow, was this a terrible choice or what? There is none of Arnaz in his performance, look or sound. His accent is all wrong, his demeanor isn’t good and the entire performance just felt off to me. He’s the worst part of the movie for sure.

Others fare better, but still I wasn’t thrilled by any one of them. J.K. Simmons also doesn’t sound the part, but he was still pretty good in the role. The same goes for Nina Arianda who actually got some quite moving scenes shared with Kidman. Speaking of Nicole, she is as fantastic as she always is. This is a highly emotional, complex role and she pulled it off impeccably, but simply the characterization seemed odd to me and the flashbacks and scenes that get inside her head did not work whatsoever.

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And where is the fun here? This is the most excruciatingly dark and lifeless take on such an energetic, lovely and humorous personality that it really renders itself pointless as a product. That is not to say that it doesn’t have its strong moments as certainly some scenes are quite emotional, the behind-the-scenes of Hollywood machinery, especially the casting are well portrayed, and the dialogue can be quite good.

However, Being the Ricardos simply feels tedious and wrong in the many bad choices that Sorkin made as a writer and as a director. This is a man who is simply bad in the directing chair and he still hasn’t learned his lesson and continues to direct his own scripts. The editing is terrible, that narration device by those fake actors was just unnecessary and dumb, and the whole time-jumping was both confusing and needless. The dialogue can also be overly modern in its themes and tone while the humor is missing altogether.

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What was the pitch behind Being the Ricardos? I honestly can’t grasp the idea behind the existence of this biopic. Aaron Sorkin obviously holds immense disdain toward the I Love Lucy show and some of the actors in it, and he was given the right to both write and direct this film. That was just one of many terrible choices that were made on this misfire of a movie. Nicole Kidman is phenomenal as she always is and she’s the only reason to see this movie. But none of the actors resemble their roles in the slightest, making for a rather odd viewing experience. The directing from Sorkin is terrible and why he continues to direct his projects when everybody is telling him to stop is a mystery to me. The editing is also bafflingly bad while the dialogue itself can feel overly modern in its tone. There are some scenes here that are moving and impactful, but for the most part this remains a foolish project that never should have been greenlit in the first place.

My Rating – 2.5