Ricki and The Flash is nothing huge or spectacular. It is
your standard family dramedy that touched on a dysfunctional family and stuff.
Although it does have Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline (who are supposed to be the
draw card for the film) holding the whole story together, it feels coming short
to me from time to time.
Ricki is a one album leader singer from a band called The
Flash. She left her family in to chase her dreams in LA and her family moved on
with or without her. Her ex-husband married a new wife and the kids saw the new
wife as their new mother. Ricki was kind of in touch with her old family but
then the kids never forgave her leaving them. Fortune did not favour Ricki and
she found herself in financial troubles that she struggled to keep up with.
Then came a call. Her daughter’s marriage fell apart and her ex-husband called
her back to assist their daughter’s recovery.
It is a standard dramedy that doesn’t give you much surprise
but Ricki and the Flash did attempt to include all social and family issues in
one film. However, the film never really capitalised on those issues but simply
skimmed over them. It is like you saw something really nice in the display
windows, went in to the shop only to find out that they are just displayed
models and the real products haven’t been delivered yet. For example, the fact
that Pete (Kevin Kline) married an African American woman as his second wife
and new mother to his white kids has a lot of story potential to explore but
then it was never touched on. Maybe it doesn’t matter but then it could be an
interesting storyline to explore considering that happened in Midwestern
America in the 80s. The film also made and issue out of one the sons being gay
and how the society does not practice equality for people of different sexual
orientation. This story had quite a bit of potential to be explored but then
again, it was just skimmed pass. Even the fact that the daughter’s husband left
the marriage for a younger woman with two kids was not really explored,
considering the daughter is not old at all. The mentioning of married very
young did not really tell you why a man would leave an equally young woman with
no kids for a woman who seemed to be from a different social class with two
young kids but liked to hang out in the bar. All these missed opportunities for
a great dramedy baffled me and kept me wonder, “Is that all?”
The relationship between Pete and Ricki (or Linda, her real
name) was not fully explored. We knew that they fought a lot (from the line
delivered by Julie “Wow you are fighting again, just like the 80s”) and she
left to chase her dream in LA without much contacts with the family because she
thought the new wife was alienating her from the family. The relationship had
lots of potential but again it feels like it was not going anywhere at the same
time. Even the relationship between Ricki and Maureen, the new wife, was so
sketchy that you can’t really have a good glimpse of the picture and it was
already taken away.
I think what I appreciated about the movie was that here was
no bad guy in the whole cast, which for me was quite refreshing. The whole
premise was built upon different family member’s perception on each other and
what they did because of their perception. It is not inherently right or wrong
but as a reflection of who they are or whom they have become because of their
experience and perception. That said I still want to know more about this
family and each character without having leaving the cinema wondering.
This doesn’t mean the movie is not enjoyable. It is totally
enjoyable and I had a great time with some great laughs. It is just a pity that
the film did not capitalise on a lot of great opportunities it presented over
the course of the story. Everyone did their best performance-wise and for me
Meryl Streep is always a joy to watch. It is an easy to digest movie so if you
feel like spending some relaxing time with some popcorn check it out. But if
you are looking for something with serious substance in the drama department,
this is probably not something for you.
