Ricki and the Flash want us to forgive ourselves

Last updated on: August 7, 2015 at 5:47 am by Kendrick Kuo

Ricki and the Flash want us to forgive ourselves 2015-08-07T05:47:34-06:00 Kendrick Kuo

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Review of Ricki and the Flash, Directed by Jonathan Demme

Put together a failed rockstar mom, a successful businessman ex-husband, a recently-divorced daughter wanting to commit suicide, an engaged son who doesn’t want his mom at his wedding, and a third child who is a gay man struggling to find any room in his heart to be kind to his mother. Ricki and the Flash has family dynamics that try to rise to the epic proportions of the Lamberts in Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections with a dash of rock and roll.

Image Source: Wikimedia

While each character is compelling to watch unfold, moviegoers are really there to see Meryl Streep play the edgy mother Ricki Rendazzo (a stage name). And for good reason. Streep as Ricki is the only thing that makes us forgive the movie for trying to mesh a failed rockstar storyline with motherhood.

Ricki’s real name is Linda Brummell. The Brummells live in an incredibly wealthy suburb, housed within a mansion, and eat at very fancy restaurants. Ricki, on the other hand, left her children behind when they were still young, to pursue a rockstar career. The career didn’t pan out and she is the house band at a small bar in Tarzana while working as a cashier in an upscale Whole Foods-ish store where people drop $400 on a grocery run. She’s sleeping with the electric guitarist from The Flash, her band, but is unwilling to commit. Ricki is broke, alone, and washed up.

Then she gets a call. A call from her refined ex-husband Pete (Kevin Kline) informs her that their daughter Julie (Mamie Gummer) is having a nervous breakdown after her husband left their short-lived marriage for another woman. Although Ricki has been out of the picture for a long time, Pete invites her to visit Indianapolis to see what she can do for Julie. Ricki arrives and the expected family feud begins in earnest, fanned by a reunion with her grown sons.

Ricki must fight to both win back her children while also feeling that she’s past her prime, past the age of being able to change anything. That she’s condemned to feel guilty for deserting her children. In a distressed monologue blabbered to her bar audience, Ricki expresses what is perhaps the most coherent message from the film that we get. Male rockstars can abandon their families for a life on the road yet they’re still idolized. Women, however, are the mothers and if they decide to do the same thing they are shamed as doing the abominable. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make sense of the movie for us since Ricki is ashamed and tries to find a way to healing.

In the end, Ricki does find a way to cleanse herself of her shame, and that is to forgive herself and believe that she still deserves happiness. This coming of age story of an older woman is moving in and of itself, but we cannot help but feel an important piece is missing. Ricki never really explains why she did what she did, never really asks for forgiveness from her children. She never confesses her wrongs and actively seeks absolution. To the end, Ricki remains self-reliant and self-justified. Thus the cathartic climax we receive leaves the movie without a clear message.

Drama

Films

Jonathan Demme

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