The origin story of I Love Lucy is pretty amazing, and Aaron Sorkin samples it in his Being the Ricardos, which is not as compelling as the real story. Sorkin takes two pivotal moments that threaten the show (and Lucy and Desi’s careers) – when Lucy is redbaited and when Lucy gets pregnant. These two events really happened 18 months apart, but Sorkin compresses them into one week.
In fact, just about everything in Being the Ricardos is more or less true to fact except for a totally imagined J. Edgar Hoover telephone call. Being the Ricardos gives the audience a glimpse of Desi’s business genius, Lucy’s artistic genius and their passionate and tempestuous relationship, all embedded in a procedural about the making of a TV episode.
I’ve learned a lot about Lucy and Desi from I Love Lucy, the third season of the TCM podcast The Plot Thickens, and I strongly recommend it. Here’s one of many tidbits from the podcast that is not in the movie: Desi invented the TV rerun by repeating episodes during Lucy’s maternity leave; it was possible because Desi had innovated by recording the show on film instead of kinescope, and it was a huge success because TV ownership had boomed since the original broadcasts.
Lucy and Desi are played by Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem. The filmmakers have used some prosthetics to make Kidman look more like Ball, but have come up short, and I found it distracting until I settled into the story. Kidman is an excellent actor, and they just should have let her play Lucy while looking like Kidman.
Sorkin’s signature in West Wing was to have characters striding around the White House, tossing off impossibly quick and witty repartee; after forty years in politics, I can tell you that real life political professionals do not talk like that. But Sorkin’s Lucy was really a quickwitted product of showbiz during the 40s, and her banter in the movie rings true – Sorkin has finally found a subject that fits Sorkin dialogue.
Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are just fine, but Being the Ricardos is a little disappointing – it’s better to dive into the TCM podcast instead. After a brief theatrical run, Being the Ricardos is now streaming on Amazon (included with Prime).