Movie #2057 ........................."Being the Ricardos" (Amazon Prime)

 Movie #2057 "Being the Ricardos" (Amazon Prime)  This is the one I really wanted to see due to it having an Aaron Sorkin script --- which was amazing, as usual.  Some critics were saying considering it is about Lucille Ball, it wasn't that funny --- from everything I have ever heard about her, she was a no mess- around businesswoman in every sense of the word, so I didn't expect it to be as funny as it was, really --- mostly glib.   I was laughing a lot, but the speed of the pacing might get in the way of that a bit.  Anyway, lots of the conflicts we read about were covered here --- the main ones being  1) how winning of a personality Desi had, so women wanted to hook up with him all the time, and  2) after a while, he felt like a second banana to her and both of those got in the way of their relationship.  What I got from this film that I really didn't realize is that Desi was much smarter than I thought he was and made a lot of the decisions on the business end --- of course, Lucille Ball made sure that happened a lot, too.  I also liked the way the film showed how difficult being funny is --- how much rehearsal it took to get the scenes just right --- a lot of people don't realize that, and it's about time a script covered that part of comedy.  I liked the way the story was presented, too --- it seems disjointed, but that's the way it would be on a busy set --- and it goes back and forth from the set to scenes of their lives in the past, her working her way up from radio to t.v.  And I liked (as I said above) the story using the facts that we know, but going further with them, but it was never preachy --- you had to keep your eyes and ears opened to get the information on this relationship and how it did or didn't work.  It's my kind of movie --- it's about people in show business that I revered and wondered about --- I'd give it 4.8.

PS -- I meant to mention the smart opening, when we just hear their voices and we are convinced we are watching the real Desi and Lucy, and then it is revealed that Javiar Bardem is playing  Desi and Nicole Kidman is Lucy --- they did a nice job and I wouldn't be surprised if they are awarded for it.

"BEING THE RICARDOS"    2021     2 hours and 11 mins      rated R

Follows Lucy and Desi as they face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage.

Director:  Aaron Sorkin

Writer:  Aaron Sorkin

Stars:  Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, J.K. Simmons