Being the Ricardos - Amazon Prime - Aaron Sorkin.

Agent Coulson

Nicole Kidman stars as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz in a film written and directed by  Aaron Sorkin. 

Limited cinema release from the 10th of December as Oscar bait before dropping on Prime on December 21st.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2j8CjynBXQ&ab_channel=AmazonPrimeVideoUK

JP Liz V1

Kidman is an interesting choice as Lucy

Nicole Kidman is her usual humour-free self in this story about Comedienne and undeniable funny woman, Lucille Ball.

I can understand Kidman's interest in the movie as it no doubt paid well and she sees parallels between the career of Lucille Ball and hers in that they overshadow their spouses in terms of success and she is also pursuing a career as a producer of content like Lucille Ball did decades before.

These Sorkin Character pieces just don't work if the actor playing the lead character doesn't draw you in. There is no filmography as such in his movies to keep you engaged, just interplay between lead character and others. Supporting cast were good but they had to interact with her.

I don't blame the material here. I blame Kidman. She along with ScarJo are just dour and off-putting.

This shouldn't have been so high budget that it couldn't get made without Kidman and it would have been better with another actor in the lead role especially as it went to Amazon Prime.

I think Rachel McAdams or Christina Applegate would have been better cast.

Full_Circle_81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118364353#Comment_118364353

I'll still watch the movie, cause I enjoy the talkiness of most Sorkins, but was concerned from the moment I heard Kidman was involved. I don't have a problem with her acting, but her face lately is just so off-putting and distracting, no matter what role shes in.

And Rachel McAdams is criminally underused in movies! I wouldn't have rated Christina Applegate all that much, but her turn in Dead to Me really changed my mind on her.

fritzelly

To anyone that's watched this were they time jumping without any indication - one minute I Love Lucy the next The Big Street - maybe someone who knows her life would know what's going on or did I miss something

bnt

I just watched this today, quite enjoyed it. There were indeed flashbacks - the first covered when Lucy met Desi, so it was pretty well signposted as a flashback, then later when the box office failure of The Big Street led to Lucy being dropped by RKO.

I find the comment about Kidman being "humor-free" to be quite amusing, since the real Lucille Ball could be very serious about her work and harsh on people. She was not like her TV character, and never intended to go in to comedy at all; she had hoped for a serious movie career, but was told she had a good voice for radio (which was tantamount to saying she had a good face for radio). Even with her TV success, she was not happy for various reasons (some explored in the movie) and had a love/hate relationship with the entertainment industry.

For there's a lot of masochism in the acting profession. We're willing to take a lot of punishment, but the minute we hit a little bit of success we are liable to run from it. We're frightened of it and develop all kinds of phobias as a consequence. Outsiders who don't understand think we have a chip on our shoulder, but it's not that at all. We're so used to failure, to being hurt and rebuffed, that we can easily come unhinged by success.

So I thought Kidman did very well with a complex character. I don't think it's a surprise that she won a Golden Globe for this role and is up for an Oscar next week.