BEING THE RICARDOS ***

 The Ricardos, in case you don't know, were Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, probably the hottest married couple in America in the '50's and certainly the hottest married couple on television and Aaron Sorkin's excellent new film, "Being the Ricardos" is about one week in their lives, a week that began when Walter Winchell announced that Ball was a member of the Communist Party, (and this was during the blacklist), so Sorkin's film isn't a comedy, (though it is often funny), but another political picture from one of America's prime specialists in political pictures.

It's also a memory piece as a few of Lucy and Desi's collaborators in the present look back, not just at the week in question, but further back into the lives of the couple. We see their meeting and follow Ball's career; some of these flashbacks work and some don't. There is, of course, the potential for mawkishness but Sorkin is much too acerbic and canny a writer for that and, as he showed in "The Trial of the Chicago Seven", he's a fine director of actors. Nicole Kidman, in particular, is outstanding as Ball, sometimes bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Lucy I remember from television and while Javier Bardem may not look much like Arnaz he turns in yet another fine performance though it is Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance who almost walks off with the picture.

The period detail, too, is perfectly realised and there are brilliant recreations of some of the television shows that made Desi and Lucy, (and the fictional Ricardos),that most beloved of couples. Unfortunately, while the film is clearly a labour of love for Sorkin is it enough to ensure its success at the box-office? It's certainly relevant; the scars that America suffered during Trump's presidency haven't really healed and much of what's happening in America and American show-biz today, bears a disturbing similarity to the age of McCarthyism. At least Ball and Arnaz challenged the conventions of the time and won and Sorkin's heartfelt film is a tribute to their tenacity. Sadly, what they couldn't heal was the minefield that was their marriage and they divorced shortly after the events displayed but this isn't a sad movie; on the contrary, this pertinent film has its own sense of uplift and is a credit to Sorkin, Kidman, Bardem and all concerned.