Ricki and the Flash

 

Ricki and the Flash 2015

• Director: Jonathan Demme
• Seen by this director: Rachel Getting Married, Philadelphia, The Silence of the Lambs, Swing Shift, Artists Against Apartheid, Springsteen videos.
• Based on the book: no.
• Cast: Meryl Streep, Rick Springfield, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Sebastian Stan, Nick Westrate, Audra McDonald
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Meryl Streep – Big Little Lies, Mamma Mia 1&2, Suffragette, Into the Woods, August Osage County, A Prairie Home Companion, Angels in America, The Hours, Marvin’s Room, The Bridges of Madison County, Postcards from the Edge, Ironweed, Out of Africa, Silkwood, Sophie’s Choice, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Kramer vs Kramer, The Deer Hunter, Holocaust
• Rick Springfield – His music videos
• Kevin Kline – My Old Lady, The Conspirator, As You Like It, A Prairie Home Companion, Wild Wild West, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Ice Storm, Dave, Chaplin, The January Man, A Fish Called Wanda, Cry Freedom, Silverado, Sophie’s Choice, Hamlet.
• Mamie Gummer – Cake, Taking Woodstock
• Wendy Crewson – On the Basis of Sex, Room
• Why? Julie Christie
• Seen: 12 November 2022      

If you’ve seen Mamma Mia you know Meryl Streep can sing. Here she plays Ricki, a middle aged rock singer who, with her band the Flash, performs in bars.

Her ex-husband Pete (Kline) phones to tell her that their daughter Julie (Gummer) is in the middle of a divorce crisis and needs her. Off she goes, back to Indiana. Pete lives in a luxurious mansion with his new wife Maureen (McDonald) while Ricki can’t even pay the cab fare. Julie and her two brothers (Stan and Westrate) hate Ricki for abandoning them to pursue her music career.

Ah, so it’s not so much a rock film, but a dysfunctional family film. A pity. Ricki tries hard. Streep tries hard. Maybe a little too hard. It feels strained, forced. There’s a little too much sweet feel-good and I hate weddings.

But it is dramatic, and at times funny. It’s rock music. They do some good covers. And Bruce Springsteen’s ‘My Love Will Never Let You Down’ raises it by a *.      

4* of 5