Easily the most entertaining movie I've seen all summer, Ricki and the Flash rocks away the post-summer blockbuster blues before we dip our toes into Oscar season. It's a familiar story, they're familiar actors, and we can hum and tap along to the familiar music, but there's a lot to be said for excellent artists coming together to make something so traditional so damn good. I mean, most of the time you can predict the exact words some of these characters say before they do, but I think that speaks less about the film's intelligence than about its emotional honesty and resonance.
Director Jonathan Demme and writer Diablo Cody pull their usual strings here, adding layer upon layer to the rote story of an absent parent who chases an artistic (or sometimes business-related) dream or goal away from his or her family, and subsequently attempts to bridge the chasms of the past. Demme and Cody make this round fresh, though, by centering on a woman, middle-aged and a mother, who left her husband and children to chase her dreams. As she returns to care for her damaged children, she is forced to confront their very different lifestyles and the demons they all harbor. And, of course, we the audience are forced to confront our ideas about all manner of complex ideas (thanks, Demme, but damn you) from alternative lifestyles and aging to dysfunctional families and class divisions.
Meryl Streep is impossibly perfect as Ricki, the rockstar woman who sings her way through life and plays our heartstrings along with her guitar. Her every moment on screen is electric, and sparks fly from under her eyeshadow and braids. We join her in maneuvering between her three children (one of whom is her real-life daughter Mamie Gummer, who proves her mettle opposite Streep), her ex-husband (Kevin Kline) and his wife (Audra McDonald), and her romantic lead guitarist. The filmmakers and Streep consistently (but not obnoxiously) push hard arguments on us against our cultural ideas of women and work, absent mothers, and poor musicians; specifically, there is a sharp focus on the double standard of women (and artists) who choose themselves and/or their work over their families. Actually, even the way I phrased that indicates an existing bias.
It's a very interesting film in this regard, and a lot is left unsaid and unresolved (which is a good thing, I think, because the characters themselves don't really resolve much) but these Big Picture ideas in no way disrupt the heart and joy of the movie. The family unit -- in all its complexity -- takes center stage here, and Demme makes a point to juxtapose images of Streep on her own and Streep with her family (either chosen or given). My favorite scene from the film comes early on, right after Ricki arrives at her ex-husband's home, and they all go to a restaurant together. We have glam-rocker Ricki, her suited husband, and three grown children: a disheveled newly-divorced daughter, a hostile and sarcastic gay son, and a similarly hostile engaged son with his fiancee. Ricki learns all kinds of new things about her estranged children, and as they try to stay civil amidst their brutal emotions, the people eating at nearby tables reflect our own awe at the spectacle. The scene is biting and vicious and all sorts of uncomfortable, and I was laughing so hard I was crying.
The rest of the film, for me, was downhill from there. Probably not a good thing, but it also never got boring. Meryl sings some more, Meryl cries some more, and there's a palpable affection that sweeps the auditorium. I'm thinking this movie is a weird mash-up of Rachel Getting Married (a Demme drama of dysfunctional family arguments) and Mamma Mia! (a Streep-vehicle of music, marriage, and mother-daughter relationships). Oh, and if you had any doubts about Streep as a rockstar, just take a look at the picture below. She looks amazing (I want that hair), she sounds like she could be an opening act for Journey or Bruce Springsteen, and her talent is laid bare in a summer of computer generated effects. I can't wait to download the music from this (especially her Lady Gaga cover, because love).
Rock on, Ricki.
IMDb: Ricki and the Flash
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