Ricki and the Flash review: Streep is good, but the film sits in the ‘slightly above average’ territory.
Ricki and the Flash review
Meryl Streep continues to mix-up her film roles with a turn as an ageing rocker in the latest comedy drama Ricki and the Flash, from writer Diablo Cody (Juno), and director Jonathan Demme (Rachel Getting Married, Silence of the Lambs).
The film starts with Ricki Rendazzo (Streep) performing to a small crowd with her band of many years, the Flash. Ricki is a fifty-something woman who walked out on her family; husband Pete (Kevin Kline), and sons Josh and Adam, as well as troubled daughter Julie (played by Streep’s real-life daughter Mamie Gummer). When Julie’s health and well-being takes a turn for the worse, Ricki must travel back to her home town of Indiana to quite literally ‘face the music,’ with the hope of finding redemption for the bad choices she has made in the past.
Ricki and the Flash review
Ricki and the Flash is a strange little movie, especially for Streep who plays against type once again in the title role. She’s really good as the lead of the [soon to be] legendary band ‘the Flash’, and a joy to watch in every scene she’s in. There’s plenty of opportunities to see Streep rock-out on stage, and as number after number are performed, you can’t help but feel the dull repetitiveness of it all. Rick Springfield also pops up as lead guitarist and boyfriend to Ricki, and also the bond that keeps abnd, and indeed Ricki, together. Then there’s Mamie Gummer, who is also stand-out as Julie, though her screen time with mother Streep, is limited to just a handful of scenes.
Ricki and the Flash is very much a throw-away movie, nowhere near to being in the same league as some of Cody’s previous efforts. There’s no real resolution to any of the sub plots featured within, which could be interpreted as a reflection on broken families in the real world.
While not ground-breaking, Demme’s film just about fits in the ‘slightly above average’ field; sometimes funny, but overly dull with not really all that much to say. A comedy/ drama that struggles to hit the right notes.
Ricki and the Flash review by Paul Heath, September 2015.
Ricki and the Flash is released in UK cinemas on Friday 4th September, 2015.
