Being the Ricardos (2021)

It is 1953 and the hugely successful I Love Lucy program suffers twin blows: an article reports that Desi (Javier Bardem) is unfaithful to Lucy and Walter Winchell accuses Lucy (Nicole Kidman) of being a communist.  Can the show survive?  The movie is told over the period of a production week and is generously sprinkled with flashbacks.  The flashbacks are chronological, starting with Lucy and Desi meeting on the set of Too Many Girls in 1940.  Their hectic schedules mean that they are seldom together.  Lucy parlays her successful radio program, My Favorite Husband, into a television show that co-stars her real-life husband and thus aligns their schedules.

Not only must the cast and crew contend with a potential show-ending disaster regarding Lucy's communist past, they must also determine what to do with Lucy's pregnancy.  Philip Morris, the show's sponsor, is adamantly oppose to a pregnant Lucy on the show.  Lucy and Desi want to have it as part of the show!  Of course, there is also the running problem that William "Bill" Frawley (JK Simmons) and Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda) detest one another though they play Fred and Ethel Mertz.  Bill proves to be a confidant for both Desi and Lucy, a man not afraid to speak his mind.  The writing staff are prominently featured and are the putative narrators of this tale.  Madelyn Pugh (Linda Lavin), Bob Carroll (Ronny Cox), and Jess Oppenheimer (John Rubinstein) are interviewees at some unspecified later date to detail the events of that hellish week.  As such, they feature prominently and provide a firsthand look behind the scene in producing a hit show.

Far from historically accurate, this is a mash-up of the time that samples some of the best of Lucy and provides a very entertaining tale.  Kidman makes for an excellent Lucy.  Some of the best bits were when she would visualize a gag in her head, running through how it might look on the show and the audience reaction.  Bardem has everything except the looks to play Desi.  He does a surprisingly good job of singing and mimicking Arnaz.  Arianda is Vivian Vance.  Of all the principal cast, she most looks like the character she plays.  She does a terrific job of bringing her to life though she seems to have the smallest part of the main four.  Simmons is outstanding as Frawley.  He shines with that 'I don't give a damn' attitude that old men often develop.

Of particular note, communism is a bad thing and all the characters agree on this.  Bill is virulently anti-communist, as is Desi.  Lucy only flirted with communism on account of her grandfather.  The sponsors might abandon the show if it is shown that Lucy is a red.  This is not painted as an unjust facet of the Red Scare, but an honest assessment by the characters.  After lionizing a communist scriptwriter in Trumbo (2015), it is a nice change of pace to see communism viewed negatively in a Hollywood production.

Overall, an excellent movie and quite fun.  Recommended.