Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Rick Springfield, Sebastian Stan, Audra McDonald
Ricki and the Flash runs about 95 minutes and at least twenty of those minutes show Ricki (Streep) and her band performing cover songs. Full songs. The Springsteen number goes on forever. The musical performances felt like filler for a movie that is ultimately thin. There is a better film in here somewhere, I know it. But Ricki and the Flash takes the easy way out in nearly every frame. All of its conflicts are handled neatly and, wouldn't you know it, a couple songs at a wedding can make everything better.
The Ricki of the title is played by Meryl Streep, who despite her decent singing voice is simply too old to play this part. She was known in her previous life as Linda, a housewife who abandons her husband and three children to chase musical stardom in California. It is said she had a hit, but her dreams stopped at a dingy club where she and her band The Flash play to small, but adoring audiences of barflies. The songs, including American Girl by Tom Petty, Drift Away by Dobie Gray, etc. do not sound overproduced a la Purple Rain, which is refreshing. The Flash's lead guitarist (and Ricki's love interest) is Greg, played by Rick Springfield. Springfield handles himself with aplomb in his scenes with the iconic Streep. He is tender and caring, with a touch of regret on how he handled his previous domestic life before playing nightly at this dive bar.
Ricki soon receives a disturbing phone call from her ex-husband Pete (Kline), who asks Ricki to come back to Indianapolis to help her daughter Julie (Gummer-Streep's real life daughter) with a heartbreaking divorce from her unfaithful husband. "I think she needs her mother," Pete says, which is a refrain echoed at least one other time in the film. Ricki hops on the next plane to Indy, but it isn't surprising that Julie is less than excited to see her. Pete, who is remarried, forever plays the arbitrator trying to keep things on an even keel. His house is really nice by the way.
Poor Julie is heartbroken beyond words. Ricki's initial attempts at comfort don't go over well. ("Sometimes people have starter marriages.") But after a day out in which Ricki takes Julie for a haircut and a mani-pedi, Julie starts to feel better about her mother. Their initial conflicts over Ricki's leaving are glossed over once Ricki confronts Julie's shameless ex one night in a bar. The payoff is not satisfying, but after the confrontation Julie's ex is never mentioned again. It is on to bigger and better things. All is well.
Ricki's presence proves to be a distraction that Pete's wife Maureen (McDonald) can no longer tolerate. She asks Ricki to go back to California, but later does a 180 degree swerve and invites Ricki to her son Josh's (Stan) wedding. She did more than just invite her and her plus-one, as you will read later. The wedding itself is one of those movie weddings which takes place outdoors on perfectly manicured grounds that would shame Buckingham Palace. There are only a few rows of guests at the wedding, so why do they need all of the extra space? Yet there is an entire banquet hall full at the reception. Who is paying for the wedding and how?
In between Ricki's return flight home and the wedding, she and the Flash perform two full songs showcasing Streep's singing acumen. She's pretty good. The band sounds pretty good. But is she truly happy knowing she left her family to become the lead singer in a dime-a-dozen cover band? She also has a day job as a cashier in a supermarket. This whole dream thing wasn't well thought out.
Ricki and Greg attend the wedding, but in a surprise move, the wedding band is replaced by the Flash. The other members and their equipment were flown in also. I'm sure that wasn't cheap. Ricki sings the aforementioned Springsteen song which has nearly everyone at the reception on the dance floor. The dance floor is large enough to accommodate them, thank goodness. Everyone is happy. Life is good. The movie is over. Huh?
The movie introduces numerous potential conflicts and tidies them up all within 95 minutes. Ricki herself wears leather pants, stiletto boots, and braided hair extensions nearly everywhere she goes. Add in the heavy makeup and you could easily mistake her for an aging prostitute. Streep and company are to be credited here for their effort. They make the most of things even though their isn't much to the film. Ricki and the Flash begins as at least potentially juicy melodrama and forsakes it all for some cover songs. Somehow a few songs will make everything better for everything involved. If you consider the director is Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme and there are two Oscar winners in the cast, Ricki and the Flash could have been a gem, but it doesn't aspire to be anything more than a showcase for Streep's vocals.
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