RICKI AND THE FLASH
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Demme
CAST: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Audra McDonald and Rick Springfield
RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes
CLASSIFICATION: 10 PG
RATING: ****
Never mind a flash in the pan, Meryl Streep is a bonfire in this flick. It’s rare to see a woman follow her dream to be a rock star by splitting up with the father of her three children, leaving him to raise them. But Ricki Rendazzo (Streep) is a rare kind of woman.
She’s a has-been rocker singing covers for cash with a band that’s status is a quarter-to-old age home, but she seems happy.
That is, until her ex-husband calls to say their daughter is getting divorced and falling into a destructive depression, meaning it’s time for Ricki to be a mother again.
The trek back to Indianapolis sees Ricki come face to face with her failures. Her ex Pete (Kline) is a strait-laced wealthy man who has re-married the feisty homemaker Maureen (McDonald). Daughter Julie (Gummer) resents Ricki and her two sons seem to want nothing to do with her either.
At its core, Ricki and The Flash is about forgiveness and family. But overriding that is a message about the right to be you, no matter what the consequences.
Streep is, well, Meryl Streep. Meaning: she can’t put a foot wrong. While her wardrobe is top notch – kudos to the wardrobe master – Streep completely becomes the has-been she portrays.
She has sun spots, a gigantic tattoo of the American flag on her back is sagging, and her eyes went shopping, but have kept the bags. Basically she is, in this movie, what Charlize Theron was in Monster. Just looking at Ricki, you wonder whether Streep is really still acting or if she’s a little drunk – in a good way.
The chemistry between Streep and McDonald is palpable. Their characters both feel they are mothers to the three kids. So naturally they don’t see eye to eye and McDonald’s Maureen is fierce when she stands her ground.
Rick Springfield plays Greg, a guitarist in Ricki’s band as well as her lover. He’s funny and a positive force in her life.
He says things like “it doesn’t matter if your kids love you. It’s not their job to love you. It’s your job to love them.”
That motivational hard truth is off-set by lines from Ricky like: “A heart is like a Big Mac. It sits and sits and sits. Gets older but doesn’t change.”
With Ricki strumming those guitar strings for all she’s worth, the music is, at times, quite fitting – with Tom Petty’s American Girl spelling out Ricki’s life in song.
Even these old musicians’ attempts to perform new songs – new to them is Pink’s Get the Party Started, ahem – are hilarious because they seem oblivious to their lack of rhythm. That’s what makes the film good. It could’ve been shorter and less cheesy in its rampant search for redemption. But if non-conformity and a tendency to not be politically correct turns you off, you may as well skip this film.
Ricki and The Flash is a dramedy that pulls at your heartstrings
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