When you grow up watching a couple like the Ricardos on TV, you never consider the real life things that happen in a marriage, and in the case of Lucy and Desi, there were a myriad of issues. This film opens with something I think I never heard of before, or if I did, have completely forgotten about. It involves Lucille Ball as a teenager having honored her grandfather's wish to register her affiliation with the Communist Party. That issue looms in the background as the story is built around a week's preparation for a single program of their hit show "I Love Lucy" during it's second season. From there you have a series of flashbacks that involve Lucy meeting and getting involved with the Cuban bandleader, followed by periods of tumult during their marriage. All the while you get a sense of Lucy's grasp of situational comedy and what makes people laugh, opposite Desi's business acumen in dealing with television executives and commercial sponsors. It's quite the balancing act that gives one some perspective on the mores of the day and how the show pushed the envelope on such program restrictions as a married couple sharing the same bed or having to nix the word 'pregnant' for fear that it would offend viewers. Can you even imagine something like that today when anything goes? The industry has come a long way, and sometimes not for the better.
Nicole Kidman does a very fine job portraying the iconic Lucille Ball, while Javier Barden does the honors as her husband, Desi Arnaz. Quite a number of comments on this board note how Bardem doesn't look a whole lot like Arnaz, but for whatever reason, I saw quite a bit of Desi in his characterization. One thing I have to mention is how I used to cringe as a kid hearing Desi sing that horrid Babalu number, but Bardem didn't make it sound so bad. In fact, it even seemed quite entertaining. As Ethel Mertz, Nina Arianda presented a somewhat more fashionable appearance than Vivian Vance did, while J. K. Simmons seemed to be more caustic than I would have expected William Frawley to be. In character, they brought to life the next door neighbors on the program, Fred and Ethel Mertz.
The movie reaches a double climax of sorts when in front of a live TV audience, Desi Arnaz fields a phone call from J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI clearing Lucy of any connection to the Communist Party. That moment of elation and triumph is quickly deflated by Lucy presenting her husband with a lipstick stained handkerchief. The band leader's speechless reaction was all she needed to know about the future of their relationship, which ended some years later in divorce. At the time, the shocking news reverberated throughout America because for all intents and purposes, the fictional Ricardos were the ideal couple living a comically charmed life. The reality though, suggests that you'll never watch an 'I Love Lucy' episode the same way again.
Nicole Kidman does a very fine job portraying the iconic Lucille Ball, while Javier Barden does the honors as her husband, Desi Arnaz. Quite a number of comments on this board note how Bardem doesn't look a whole lot like Arnaz, but for whatever reason, I saw quite a bit of Desi in his characterization. One thing I have to mention is how I used to cringe as a kid hearing Desi sing that horrid Babalu number, but Bardem didn't make it sound so bad. In fact, it even seemed quite entertaining. As Ethel Mertz, Nina Arianda presented a somewhat more fashionable appearance than Vivian Vance did, while J. K. Simmons seemed to be more caustic than I would have expected William Frawley to be. In character, they brought to life the next door neighbors on the program, Fred and Ethel Mertz.
The movie reaches a double climax of sorts when in front of a live TV audience, Desi Arnaz fields a phone call from J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI clearing Lucy of any connection to the Communist Party. That moment of elation and triumph is quickly deflated by Lucy presenting her husband with a lipstick stained handkerchief. The band leader's speechless reaction was all she needed to know about the future of their relationship, which ended some years later in divorce. At the time, the shocking news reverberated throughout America because for all intents and purposes, the fictional Ricardos were the ideal couple living a comically charmed life. The reality though, suggests that you'll never watch an 'I Love Lucy' episode the same way again.