Being the Ricardos

"I’m Lucille Ball. When I’m being funny, you’ll know it."

I can't say that I am especially familiar with I Love Lucy. It's not a show that has been aired on UK tv much in my lifetime. When it aired though it was the biggest show in the world with sixty million people tuning in each week and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz becoming household names. 

This film, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, is set during one week in the production of the show as Lucille and Desi face a number of crises. Lucille is reported as being a communist during a time when that was the very worst thing to be, was pregnant making the future of the show come into question and there were reports that Desi was having an affair. 

I really enjoyed the film. It's highlight is the Sorkin script, bristling with energy and darting around in time. The film isn't really about I Love Lucy and there are only a few bits from the show that are re-created. Instead it's a focus on Lucille in particularly as she deals with those crises. Lucille is depicted here as a strong, spiky woman who is constantly fighting the fact that everything she does is controlled by men. I love the way she is depicted as being the most talented person in the room, making changes to the script and improving the direction much to the frustration of the crew. 

There's some criticism of the fact that Nicole Kidman and Desi Arnaz don't really look anything like the real people they are playing. That's an understandable complaint as few biopic characters are surely as recognisable as them but at the same time does it really matter? So many biopics are remembered for their incredible make-up and prosthetics and little else. The point is that the actors nail the characters they are playing, with Nicole Kidman being far and away the highlight of this film. She is just delightful here and I found it easy to forget that she didn't actually look like Lucille Ball because she embodies her so well. 

The directing is the film's biggest weakness. Aaron Sorkin is a superb writer but he's a pretty average director to say the least. It's fortunate really that he has Sorkin the writer and the incredible actors bringing the script to life to fall back on because he does nothing very interesting behind the camera. In the hands of a better director this could have been a masterpiece but sadly it's just good. As much as he seems to enjoy directing, Sorkin would be better off handing his scripts to someone else to film.

Great script, great performances especially from Kidman but let down somewhat by the directing.