Hmmm. This doesn’t sound much like an Aaron Sorkin script. Just as Nicole Kidman doesn’t remind me of Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem doesn’t remind me of Desi Arnaz (or JK Simmons the person he’s playing). The movie didn’t make a compelling argument to me why I should care about one week in the life of the I Love Lucy show. Or why Lucy is fighting so hard for a very dopy set of gags (but I’m sure it’s metaphorical).

The flick is about a turbulent week for the married couple when it comes out that he might be having an affair and that she might be a communist. And… yeah… that’s about it. I guess we get some insight into the making of a week’s worth of a sitcom and a little biographical info about the stars.

The biggest problem with this film is that I didn’t care that much for the characters or story. And, hey, blame that on my general disinterest in the I Love Lucy sitcom… it’s something that I couldn’t relate to as a kid unlike reruns of The Brady Bunch or Leave it to Beaver. So maybe the problem is me.

And maybe the problem is the casting. I certainly like Kidman and Bardem, but neither vanished into their roles. JK Simmons as actor William Frawley just reminded me of JK Simmons… though he did perform it physically like the character on the sitcom. Only Nina Arianda felt like her character Vivian Vance… and maybe that’s just because I’m not familiar with the actress.

The acting was generally ok but they didn’t have the greatest Sorkin script to work with. Unlike most of his work, I didn’t think the dialog in this film was snappy, electric, or propulsive. A better script would have made me care more for the situation and circumstances… but it wasn’t a better script.

There were moments in the film where things picked up and I found them more entertaining. But there wasn’t enough. In the end, the film couldn’t justify its existence, the actors didn’t vanish but they played their parts well enough, and I didn’t gain much insight about 1950s tv that I didn’t already know just by being alive.

Score: 76