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'Ricki and the Flash' Isn't Big on Family Love

Ricki and the Flash is a peculiar movie in that it has Meryl Streep singing and banging away on a guitar as a mother who pretty much deserted her husband and children some decades ago and doesn't repent doing so even though her musical career doesn't even support her so she can quit her daytime job clerking at Total Foods. The ending is fairly predictable except that it doesn't require more of her than we can stretch our disbelief to accept.

The biggest problem with Ricki and the Flash is that Diablo Cody's screenplay is much better on family hatred than on the vestiges of family love, and Streep's daughter, especially, makes an awfully strong case against her errant mother; ex-husband Kevin Kline seems incapable of bitter feelings, but he had a second wife Audra MacDonald, who is a veritable saint, to help him, and he hadn't been the most attentive father, anyway.

Director Jonathan Demme's intentions are clear, as food and music keep bringing people together while family fury drives them apart and obvious symbolism pushes both ends of the emotional spectrum til an unquestionable effective ending tops everything else. It may just be a glorious moment, but at least it gives everybody a chance to start over.

You may have doubts about the general line of Ricki and the Flash, though at least it doesn't glamorize show business in the Hollywood way; but even I got taken up by the ending, and of course I attempt no judgment on the music.