Ricki and the Flash: entre la fama y la familia

After reading mixed reviews for this movie and I make up my own mind - this is a delight, a relatively quiet film with some really good music. A story of a mother who went her own way and how she works to right a few things and make amends with her three children. Meryl Streep working with her own daughter was good to watch. Easy to see the genes working well together. Some of my favorite actors are in this movie - Kevin Kline is another actor that I would not miss a film of his, of course Meryl Streep - I love the variety of films she does and excels at. Audra McDonald - so good as the step-mother. This is a story of a mother who wants to be there for her daughter who is experiencing a heartbreak of her own., You get the impression that Rikki almost misses what she left. But she has a strong man by her side and has trouble letting herself acknowledging it. This is a good movie, a quiet family drama movie and as I said a movie with some great music. The last scenes make you want to get up an dance.

I have seen every movie made by Meryl Streep and I think she is a GREAT movie actress. Having said that, this movie is vile! The only positive thing that can be said is that the other actors did not embarrass themselves like she did. Not for one second did I buy her as Ricki. It is the only sub-par performance of her career. Now the script and dialog - imagine a soap opera from the fifties. PLot - from the silent era in subtlety. Direction - the wedding scene is flat out incompetent in that not a single character reaction rings true. Now, Meryl's voice is not unpleasant, nor is it any good. For some reason, she tortures the audience with mediocre performance after mediocre performance for what felt like hours. By the way, I really hated this movie

First thing: it was smart for Diablo Cody to write that Ricki (Meryl Streep, of course it's her) and the Flash (one of them Rick Springfield of all people, he's real good by the way) as bar musicians in this present day and age. Would they, or could they, be playing more legitimate venues? Possibly. But it's clear as day that Ricki (not her real name, but as she jokes she was 'born really as Ricki') is not leading some great revolution of music - she just likes playing her covers of classic rock songs (with some new stuff, she doesn't leave the 'young people' out of Lady Gaga and Pink).

It shows her and her group at a point in life that isn't the most ideal, but they can get by and play music in front of some kind of audience. This is her at her happiest and most in control, as in her day life, working as a cashier at a chain grocery store (always having to keep a smile on her face, as the condescending boss says), and in her personal life (her family hasn't spoken to her in a long time) it's messy to put it lightly, due to the thing of leaving away to go and follow her dreams.

Ricki is not a sympathetic character, and this follows along with Cody from some other protagonists she's had (remember Young Adult), but also for Jonathan Demme, who has his first (relatively wide-release) fiction feature in seven years, and his own previous film, Rachel Getting Married, was about another family f***-up who doesn't know how to get back in good graces, or even how to say the right things. I don't meant to make comparisons through this whole review, just to point out some interesting similarities, which end pretty much there aside from both movies also having weddings. In this case of 'Ricki', her daughter is in personal turmoil - Kevin Kline, father of her kids and ex, tells her that her husband left her for another woman and her marriage has effectively fallen apart - so she rushes to help her. How can she help her? In reality, Ricki's daughter tried to kill herself.

Some deep stuff dramatically speaking is going on in the movie. So why is this actually kind of, sort of, a 'light' movie, in a sense? I think Demme is smart to keep Cody's script this way, and to trust the instincts of the material; there's no easy way to help Julie (Streep's own daughter, Mamie Gummer) except to make sure she gets the therapy she needs and attention she needs. In one fell swoop Ricki does one and not the other, by taking her to get her hair and nails done and missing her therapy appointment. It's a fun little scene - uh oh, she's using the family credit card again, wop-wop - but there are consequences. And yet what's also good is that Cody not only isn't shy of going to those awkward, cringe-type of scenes, she embraces them. The obvious one is when the family goes out to a dinner, and Ricki's estranged sons (one engaged, which she was ignorant of, and one gay, also ignorant but not in a good way). But watch as Maureen, the new wife and mother for so many years to Ricki's kids, lays it down as to why she really has to leave: what can she REALLY do here for her daughter? That Ricki's just out of the shower adds to the, shall one say, nakedness of the emotional truth here.

Yes, there's some goofy stuff here, like the family finding some pot and smoking it and having some munchies and late-night guitar strumming, but Demme handles it without anything feeling too false or sitcomy. In the wrong hands this could be really disastrous, maudlin stuff. I think it's not a great film by any stretch, but the filmmakers are in sync with one another, and even find ways to make songs played on stage into dramatic beats; Streep and Springfield aren't just singing songs, they're acting and going through some emotional crises of their own, in small and big ways, all down to what it means to be a parent for one's child (love, as it turns out, is the thing a parent must do for their kids, not necessarily the other way around if it comes to it).

So while there are some serious issues dealt with here - depression and suicide, marriage and relationships, abandonment issues, and what love can be shown as - music and a light, mostly comic touch, helps to level out the material. Indeed the climax is done almost like one of those old-time rock n roll movies (Demme has in the past decades done his share of rock docs, and his knack for finding the right angle and cuts shows very well), and as the band plays on at a wedding people can either get up and get into the music, or sit down like schlubs and not get into it. It's a nice, uplifting way to reach a conclusion to this story, especially considering what Ricki's done and gone through, an otherwise flawed and damaged individual (and as usual given a nice turn via Streep), and that music is the one thing that a) she's really good at, far as this kind of music goes on this level, and b) the family can see the good in her when she plays it. It's sincere, but heartfelt stuff.

Meryl Streep, Rick Springfield, Audra McDonald and Kevin Klein are all worth watching in this predictable and sentimental movie musical. The problem really comes down to a mediocre script from Diablo Cody. I expected more from Academy Award winner Ms. Cody than this workmanlike and often tedious screenplay. The music is great and Streep is a super singer and along with Springfield, they turn in great performances. Audra McDonald is a gem who I hope to see more of in films in the future. The milieu of the sleazy bar in Tarzana where Streep and Springfield are the house band is fascinating. Too bad it all ends up to be nothing more than a tired wedding and predictable emotional resolution of a mother and her entitled children. Thank God for the music which director, Jonathan Demme, allows to play out at length - perhaps to fill in the time since the script was substandard. We all love Meryl Streep but I couldn't help but wonder, how did her daughter get that job.

As hard as I've tried, I just can't get on the Diablo Cody bandwagon. Yes, I saw Juno and Young Adult, both movies that I thought had great concepts and stories hindered by clunky screenplays. Cody's writing hints at much of what people complain about millennials: narcissistic, overly snarky, and the thought that being a special snowflake makes up for being a miserable, unlikable human being. Ricki and the Flash follows this formula once again.

Sorry, but if you're a mother and you just ditch your family to selfishly "follow your dream", the family shouldn't just accept you back like it's no big deal. I just couldn't get past that. The story felt more like a Disney Channel Movie than anything else.

I like Meryl Streep and it was kind of funny seeing her as a rockstar, but that was about the only good thing going for it. Her performance alone made up for an otherwise weak screenplay and generic story.

Hollywood badly needs more female writers and directors, but Cody's flaws as a writer keep showing up movie after movie. She needs a co- writer or script doctor to help polish up the unrealistic dialogue, characters that appear more like cartoon characters than human beings, and humor that is more eye rolling than gut busting.

I think I'll skip her next film, like I should have skipped this one.