OSCARS 2022: Being the Ricardos (2021)

Another Oscar season brings with it another Aaron Sorkin movie. That most didactic of American screenwriting superstars has successfully transitioned to directing at this point, I would say. After his second feature was festooned with award nominations, his latest movie has been similarly warmly received by the Academy. Despite the actual reviews being mixed, “Being the Ricardo” has earned three Oscar noms for obvious reasons. It’s about the Academy’s favorite subject: This business called show. Having respected stars — Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, and J.K. Simmons, all nominated — bring beloved entertainment icons to life was a surefire way to get award season attention. Whether or not “Being the Ricardos” deserves this success is debatable, as the actual quality of Sorkin’s film is among this year’s most hotly contested Oscar topics. 

The film follows one tumultuous week in the life of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Lucy attempts to assemble another episode of “I Love Lucy,” facing pressures from the writers and producers when she wants to rewrite several scenes. The Sunday night, a tabloid story breaks about Desi being unfaithful to her. He denies the infidelity but the suspicion gnaws at her. The same night, on Walter Winchell's radio show, he reveals that the biggest star on television has ties to the Communist party. As she once registered as a Communist, Lucy and everyone else at the studio agonizes about her being blacklisted. Also, this is the week Lucy and Desi decided to tell the network that they were having another baby and the pregnancy was to be written into the show. All the way, Ball looks back at the ups-and-downs of her career and marriage.

All throughout “Being the Ricardos,” I couldn't help but be reminded of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” That was Sorkin's ill-conceived attempt to build a prime time drama out of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans at a “Saturday Night Live” style sketch comedy show. (Which famously debuted the same season as “30 Rock,” a comedy with the same premise.) The gulf between the amount of importance “Studio 60” placed on its show-within-a-show and the actual quality of the comedy we saw was hilariously vast. At least “I Love Lucy” was actually a wildly influential and groundbreaking show that brought joy to millions. Yet the subplot where Lucille Ball agonizes over a minor joke, of Desi coming home and attempting to surprise her, feels gloriously self-important. The film recreates several beloved, famous gags from “I Love Lucy.” Despite the prominence these scenes have in television history, they are rendered here as painfully awkward as those “Studio 60” sketches. I don't think Aaron Sorkin understands comedy. He sure as fuck does understands creators hopelessly high on their own supply, who believe every decision they make to be boundary-shattering, life changing genius. 

But of course “Being the Ricardos” is wildly grandiose in its self-importance, it's an Aaron Sorkin movie. Because Sorkin only writes Important with a Capital I stories, the film isn't just about TV. Lucy is a woman struggling to tell her story in a deeply prejudiced time and place, a pain she shares with the sole female writer on the team. All her choices – innately brilliant, because she's a Sorkin protagonist – are double-guessed by the men around her. She fears her career is in jeopardy from the Red Scare, even though she's indifferent to Communism. In other words, she's a woman under an immense amount of pressure to succeed and is about to crack. Which makes her a stand-in for all women in our sexist world. As much as the movie emphasizes Ball's difficulties in a man's world, the movie is ultimately full of shit. Desi insists Lucy say she simply “checked the wrong box.” She objects to that explanation, because it makes her sound like an idiot. Spoiler alert: Desi is proven right in the end and Lucy winds up agreeing with him. 

The only time "Being the Ricardos" feels genuine is when Sorkin stops trying to make some grand statement and just focuses on the characters' humanity. The subplot concerning Lucy's growing discomfort with Desi's cheating is decently compelling. She can deduce the truth but doesn't want to believe it. The flashback sequences, showing the whirlwind beginnings of their romance, are a decent depiction of the compromises one makes while in a relationship. The long road towards "I Love Lucy," where Ball's career had much turbulence, have more naturalistic drama than any of the present scenes. I also like a brief moment, where Ball talks with Vivian Vance about her weight loss. That's a less showy display of the pressures that were on professional women in the fifties than the more melodramatic moments.

It's easy to see why A-list actors are attracted to Sorkin's material. It allows them to make big important speeches and trade sharp verbal barbs. This is certainly true of "Being the Ricardos." J.K. Simmons, as William Frawley, gets the best mix of inspiring monologues and acerbic one-liners. But what of Kidman and Bardem in the lead roles? Well, Bardem finds a decent balance as a charming lothario that would probably be tiresome to be married to. Kidman clearly has the aptitude to juggle Sorkin's fast-paced dialogue. Neither look nor sound much like the real Arnaz or Ball though. This is especially distracting for Kidman, whose attempts to imitate Ball's distinctive voice especially took me out of the movie.

By the way, Lucille Ball never had a week quite like the one portrayed in the film. She dealt with all of the above but not over the course of five days. Normally, I wouldn't care much about a biopic condensing true events but it comes off as a bit disingenuous here. Namely, because the film includes a framing device of interviews with the 'I Love Lucy" writers, as if it's telling the "real story" when it's not. (See also: Desi hating Communism because of his family fleeing Cuba, something they did long before Castro seized control of the island nation.) When writing about actual history, Sorkin's bloviating ways are at least understandable. When focused on the entertainment world, the sheer self-absorption of his style becomes insufferable. Combined with a miscast lead, "Being the Ricardos" becomes one of the more inessential of this year's crop of high-profile Oscar nominees. [5/10]