Meryl Streep: Guitar Queen! "Ricki and the Flash"

Ricki and the Flash (2015)

Rated

Starring Meryl Streep, Rick Springfield, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Audra McDonald, Sebastian Stan, Nick Westrate

Directed by Johnathan Demme

The Story:

Ricki (Streep) loves performing with her band, The Flash. So much so, that she left her husband (Kline) and their kids (Gummer, Stan, Westrate) to pursue her passion. When their daughter Julie winds up nearly killing herself, Ricki is invited back home to help deal with the depression. She may have been a terrible mom, but she still loves her kids and might do better with this second chance.

Once Meryl Streep decides she wants to sing, she's going to keep on singing. Apparently Mama Mia scratched an itch for her, and she's going to indulge it.

This dramedy actually has quite a bit going for it, and Streep's singing is actually the least of it.

Watching her reconnect with her kids that clearly don't want her around, then come to accept that she is who she is, which is their mom, and she's doing the best that she can, the only way she knows how is not really rushed as it unfolds.

Kevin Kline, charming as ever, plays the dad perfectly, however the clear winner of the cast here is Audra McDonald who comes in late to the action as "Mom # 2". She's sweet, charming, level-headed, and everything that Ricki was not to the kids. In fact, it was all of her intervention over the years that even allows the kids to have a relationship with their mom at all.

Now, if the struggle with her former family isn't enough, there's also the romantic subplot between her and her lead guitar player (Springfield). He clearly loves her, but she wants to keep things strictly physical.

There's a lot to like here, and I will have to chalk this one up to being pleasantly surprised at how engaging it was, considering how many different minor subplots they try and toss in the air to juggle at the same time.

Final Grade: B-