ricki and the flash

apart from seeing the great meryl streep immensely enjoying playing an aging rocker trying to reconnect with her family, not much can be said about ricki and the flash.

the movie is about ricki rendazzo, who at night plays in the local bar but also does waiting job to make both ends meet. in pursuit of her dreams of becoming a rockstar, ricki left her husband and 3 kids. when one of her kids got dumped by her fiancé and becomes suicidal, ricki (whose real name is linda), comes back to indianapolis to bond and hopefully reconnect with her daughter and 2 sons.

as usual, la streep was at her a-game. she's a joy to watch being an aging rockstar but at the same time, she displays the true genius in her especially in tender and quiet moments of the film. the best scene was when she sang cold one to pete (kevin kline) and julie (mamie gummer) in the living room. the whole cast seemed to have fun doing the film, it was great ensemble acting piece. of course, the songs and music that went with the movie were great. from covers to original pieces, the soundtrack is a very good afternoon treat.

with great acting and terrific songs, such a pity to lose the movie with incoherent back stories, quite a number of loose ends and uber-predictability. there was no mention of why would a seemingly well-balanced mother leave her 3 kids and what really happened to her that led to her misery (or was it really her grand plan anyway?!). the resolution of the film through rock music at joshua's (sebastian stan) wedding was so far-fetched and hollywoodish that it became the nail to the movie's coffin. it was super predictable and one can already correctly guess what will happen. ricki/linda of course won't be welcomed by any of her kids, having been away for 25 years. not to say that there should be a villain or write pete or maureen (audra mcdonald) as unpleasant characters but diablo cody and jonathan demme could have orchestrated a better way for linda to win her kids' hearts.

now i'm excited to see florence foster jenkins for another streep treat.