Ricki and the Flash
Director: Jonathan Demme
Cast: Meryl Streep, Rick Springfield, Rick Rosas, Joe Vitale, Bernie Worrell, Ben Platt, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Sebastian Stan, Nick Westrate, Hailey Gates, Audra McDonald
Rating: B-
Meryl Streep, an actress who can do no wrong, is rocking–n-rolling as an aging musician in Ricki and The Flash. In playing Ricki, Streep looks like a cross between Pat Benatar and Stevie Nicks that went terribly wrong. The actress displays her singing pipes while she struts around in long-braided hair, clunky high heels, and skin tight high-waisted pants. Meryl pulls off the lovable cartoonish performer that is a legend in her own mind and makes her character a joy to watch. Will Streep’s performance as the eccentric guitarist heading up her own band be enough to make Ricki and The Flash an effective musical fairytale?
Grocery store clerk by day and rock star by night, Ricki gets a call one day from her ex-husband Pete (Kevin Kline) who tells her that she is needed in Indiana to pull their daughter Julie (Mamie Gummer) out of a deep depression resulting from her breakup with her husband. With barely two nickels to rub together, Ricki arrives at the castle Pete shares with his new wife Maureen (Audra McDonald). The estranged mother, whose children also include sons Josh (Sebastian Stan) and Adam (Nick Westrate), navigates her way through a lot of family drama as she tries to answer for leaving her family to pursue a singing career.
There is a lot of memorable and snappy dialogue in the film. We get an intense scene at a family dinner when one son accuses his mother of not accepting his homosexuality, the other son bans his mother from his wedding, the ex-husband tries to keep the peace, as the daughter instigates confrontation while she sits back and enjoys the firestorm. One of the most intense scenes is a showdown between Ricki and Maureen on who is the better mother. Writer Diablo Cody throws in quite a bit of humor as we see Ricki go on a spending spree during a girls day out, getting high on marijuana, and telling off Julie’s cheating husband.
Unfortunately, what could have been a heartfelt drama about a family’s ability to give falls short and the movie starts spinning its wheels. Once Ricki returns to Indiana there are missed opportunities to really dive deep into what caused her to leave and never look back. We never get an in-depth look into the complexity of the relationships Ricki has with her two boys. There is a lot of screaming and yelling when Julie enters into the picture, but we never get deeper exposure into what is really bothering Julie when it comes to her mother. Ricki had the strength to leave her family but once she returns to them it feels more like she is getting walked all over and we don’t get to see the fire and passion that drives her. She comes off as a doormat as her family snarls at her throughout the film.
Once she returns to L.A. we get more of Ricki and her band playing their hearts out at a local bar. The musical performance is something we got a big dose of at the beginning of the film. It almost feels like another long drawn out scene in the bar where the band performs was thrown in just in case we forgot that Ricki is a wanna-be-rock-star. She ultimately gets an invite to her son’s wedding and when she shows up to the event sort of just wanders around aimlessly in what could have been a climactic moment in the film. The final scene of the production is a grand slam when Ricki sings along with bandmate and love interest Greg (Rick Springfield), bringing back to life the free spirited singer that stays true to herself. There was so much more that could have been done to build up the dynamics between all the family members that really could have given this film much more heart.
For the most part Ricki and The Flash is just a Meryl Streep showcase movie and once again the seasoned actress gets to show off that she can take on just about any movie role. Fans of Streep won’t mind the sluggish feel of the film and will find themselves rocking to the tune of this little family drama.
