Being the Ricardos

Matt Roush says...

Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz—or as millions of TV viewers knew them in the 1950s, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo—in Aaron Sorkin’s enjoyable if overly busy behind-the-scenes look at I Love Lucy during an especially busy week leading up to taping. Conflating several events into a melodramatically compressed time frame, Ricardos opens with a scandal, when the nation’s favorite redhead is accused of being a “red”—Communist—during the McCarthy witch hunt. (It isn’t true.) While this crisis unfolds, Lucy—shown in the movie’s best scenes to be a true and exacting student of comedy—announces to horrified network execs and sponsors that she’s pregnant, and insists that Lucy Ricardo will also be on camera, then unheard of. Adding brilliant support are character actors Nina Arianda and J.K. Simmons as picture-perfect replicas of Vivian Vance and William Frawley, Lucy’s Ethel and Fred Mertz.

What's Worth Watching (Dec 21)