Taglines: Get Ready for Ricki.
Three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep goes electric and takes on a whole new gig – a hard-rocking singer/guitarist – for Oscar®-winning director Jonathan Demme and Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody in the uplifting comedy Ricki and the Flash.
In a film loaded with music and live performance, Streep stars as Ricki, a guitar heroine who gave up everything for her dream of rock-and-roll stardom, but is now returning home to make things right with her family. Streep stars opposite her real-life daughter Mamie Gummer, who plays her fictional daughter; Rick Springfield, who takes on the role of a Flash member in love with Ricki; and Kevin Kline, who portrays Ricki’s long-suffering ex-husband.
Ricki and the Flash is an American comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Diablo Cody, about a woman who gave up/left her family to become a rock star and then gets a chance to get everything back where it was. The film stars Meryl Streep, Mamie Gummer, Kevin Kline, Sebastian Stan, Rick Springfield, Audra McDonald, and Ben Platt. It will be the third film Streep and her real-life daughter Gummer have made together after 1986’s Heartburn and 2007’s Evening; also the third film Streep has appeared in alongside Kline, her costar in Sophie’s Choice and A Prairie Home Companion.
About the Story
Ricki chased her dreams of becoming a famous rock star by abandoning her family. She gets a chance to put things right when her ex-husband Pete asks her to visit Indianapolis and help their estranged daughter Julie through a difficult time.
Ricki has a rock band that plays a regular gig at a small bar, when she’s not working as a cashier to make ends meet. Julie recently attempted suicide because her husband cheated on her and is divorcing her. Despite being broke, Ricki comes to Indianapolis to help her daughter, but Julie is hostile. Likewise, her two sons are hostile and unwelcoming.
One is gay and the other recently became engaged, though no one told their mother. Still, Ricki gets through to Julie. Unfortunately, her husband’s second wife, Maureen, returns unexpectedly, confronting Ricki with some hard truths. She wasn’t there for her children when they needed her and Maureen was. Ashamed, Ricki returns to her band in California angry and bitter, insulting her guitarist who is in love with her. He makes her realize he cares and they make love.
Maureen sends Ricki an invitation to the son’s wedding as an olive branch, but Ricki can’t afford to go. Her boyfriend sells his best guitar to pay for the tickets. Despite her attempts at reconciliation, she’s clearly still an outsider. The wedding guests look askance at Ricki when she gets up to toast the bride and groom. As her gift, having no money, she has her band take over and play for the guests. Her son and his bride start the wedding dance and slowly the guests join in.
Ricki and the Flash
Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Meryl Streep, Sebastian Stan, Mamie Gummer, Kevin Kline, Ben Platt, Rick Springfield, Charlotte Rae, Audra McDonald, Melanie Foster, Grocery Shopper, Lisa Joyce
Screenplay by: Diablo Cody
Production Design by: Stuart Wurtzel
Cinematography by: Declan Quinn
Film Editing by: Wyatt Smith
Costume Design by: Ann Roth
Set Decoration by: George DeTitta Jr.
MPAA Rating: PG – 13 for thematic material, brief drug content, sexuality and language.
Studio: Sony TriStar Pictures
Release Date: August 7, 2015
Visits: 68
