Chameleon-like acting legend, Meryl Streep morphs into a new character, the likes of which we've never seen her play before. The movie is called 'Ricki and The Flash.' Time Warner Cable News film critic Neil Rosen filed the following review.
Meryl plays aging rocker Ricki. She never really hit it big and now plays gigs at local West Coast bars to geriatric audiences.
Ricki abandoned her ex-husband Pete, played by Kevin Kline, and their three kids many years earlier to try and become a rock n' roll star. But decades later Pete calls to tell her that their daughter Julie is suicidal because her husband left her for another woman.
The next thing you know, Ricki is on the next plane to Indianapolis, looking to straighten out her daughter's life and make things right with her long estranged family.
The problem here is that there are way too many songs -- full length version of them, not snippets -- that are interspersed throughout the film. I got the idea after the first musical number that Streep, who sings and plays her own guitar here, can do this. But she's not really all that good musically, so I don't really want to hear, in their entirety, cover band versions of "Wooly Bully," "Drift Away," a Springsteen tune, as well as several other songs.
Real life rocker Rick Springfield plays Streep's bandmate and love interest, and he is good. But if you're going to play entire musical numbers, I would have liked to hear his hit "Jesse's Girl." That would have at least been enjoyable.
As far as the shortchanged story itself goes, it's better than the music, but it's not great. The direction by Jonathan Demme is nothing exceptional and the screenplay by Diablo Cody is predictable and mediocre.
The fun here is to see Kevin Kline and Streep, who both starred in "Sophie's Choice," act in several scenes together. Streep has a nice rapport with her real life daughter Mammie Gummer, who plays her daughter in the film. Plus a showdown between Streep and Audra McDonald, as Pete's current wife, is quite good.
This is not worth full price at the box office on any level. I can make a slight case to see it when it comes out on On Demand, but it won't be a strong one.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating:
One and a Half Apples