Ricki and the Flash [PG]

By day Linda is a checkout chick at a wholefoods market and by night she is Ricki the rocking lead singer of Ricki and the Flash. She knows who she is and she’s happy. But she receives a rude awakening when her ex-husband calls her asking for help in getting their divorce-stricken daughter through the grief. Whilst there, Linda learns that her kids want nothing to do with her, they’re hateful and ashamed, and blood is obviously not thicker than water. Despite the shuns Ricki retains a rock-solid love for her kids and when the time comes for her shot at redemption, like a classic rock song she’ll come through. 

Looking at the cover, you immediately think that this is going to be an obvious feel-good movie like The Devil Wears Prada, but refreshingly enough it is so much more than that even though it appears to be nothing like that at all. 

What I chiefly enjoyed about this movie was its subtlety. Nothing about this movie, not the comedy, the narrative arc, the sequence of events, or even the structure was obvious or predictable and I found that really refreshing. 

Whilst it’s fun to watch a movie where the messages and punch lines come at your face, sometimes you need a movie that makes you sit up and search for the meaning and that’s what Ricki and the Flash does. 

There’s a lovely duality to this movie that makes it more than just a generic feel-good comedy. On the surface, it’s a redemption story between an estranged wife and mother and her ex-husband and kids. But underneath, it’s a story about the enduring spirit of youth –as clichéd as that sounds- expressed through rock music. The music therefore, in this film is of vital importance and the songs that Meryl Streep sings are so poignant and lovely as to make you drift away. The diva-who-can-do-no-wrong proves her versatility singing in a very coarse, rock ‘n’ roll voice as well as sweet and original songs with melancholy and heart. 

All the performances in this film were spot on! Meryl as the aging rock chick delivers a beautifully restrained performance when she could easily have gone all out and made the movie about her. And Mamie Gummer, Sebastian Stan, and Nick Westrate as the ‘kids’ were all terrific, it was hard to decide who hated her more and each made the most of their centre screen time. When a scene was about them, you knew it. 

Starring Kevin Kline, Rick Rosas, Joe Vitale, Bernie Worrell, Ben Platt, Joe Toutebon, Aaron Moten, Hailey Gates, Audra McDonald, and Rick Springfield, Ricki and the Flash is a lovely little comedy and a sweet story about endurance and redemption. Filled with rock music, drama, romance, and comedy, I quite enjoyed it.