Ricki and the Flash
starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Audra McDonald, Sebastian Stan, Ben Platt and Rick Springfield
written by Diablo Cody
directed by Jonathan Demme
Rating: ♦♦◊◊◊
I wanted to see this movie, but when I finally had the chance I was a little disappointed. Meryl Streep plays wife and mother Linda Brummel who leaves her family to pursue a career as a rock and roll singer under the alias Ricki Rendazzo. In the film she is already an aging singer, in a relationship with one of her bandmates, Greg (Rick Springfield), and permanently stuck in the Los Angeles club scene. No fame and fortune, but she still plugs away at her dream. One day Ricki’s ex-husband, Pete (Kevin Kline), calls her out of the blue because her adult daughter is experiencing marital break-up and dangerous depression. So Ricki has a chance to re-connect with her estranged family and make amends. Pete is a wealthy businessman living in a gated community in Indianapolis, and he’s re-married. So the return of Ricki causes friction among the family - with her other adult children, plus the new wife.
Ricki is like a parent who never grew up - a woman who’s supposed to be in her late fifties but who still dresses, lives, and acts like a groovy hipster, and that’s what didn’t play out well with Pete Brummel and his wealthy set, and their children. Rather than seeing her as the Groovy Mom her children see her as the embarrassing mom.