Best Actor 2021: Javier Bardem in Being the Ricardos

Javier Bardem received his fourth Oscar nomination for portraying Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos. 

Being the Ricardos tells the story of one week in the production of the hit show "I Love Lucy", where its star Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) must go through a series of personal and professional troubles in that short span of a week. The film is essentially why writer and now director Aaron Sorkin should never direct what he writes. Although he is talented, he also falls into easy excesses and eccentricities. Here there was some decent idea within it, however he over-stuffs it both in terms of all the different things he tries to cover in Ball's life, but also just through his dialogue that tries so hard to be clever that it all sounds pretty dumb. That's isn't even speaking of his direction that wants to be oddly serious and overly dramatic in depicting the life of the most famous of comediennes. The film desperately needed a second voice to temper Sorkin's excesses and to get him to hone in on something, as David Fincher did with The Social Network. 

Now the biggest controversy around the film was the casting of Nicole Kidman as Lucy, while Javier Bardem's casting was less focused upon, though where Kidman at least can be described in the general atmosphere of the same type, Bardem seems a stratosphere away from what I think of when I think of Desi Arnaz. Arnaz is a performer, both as a musician and a sitcom lead, was all about levity, not the first word I think of when I think of Bardem, known for his heavily dramatic or often rather malicious turns. Bardem can be charming and humorous, but it is not what is his innate presence. Unfortunately this makes for a weird choice for "Cuban Pete" himself. Where one thing Kidman does very successfully is is create a natural approximation of Lucille Ball's voice, Bardem fails miserably at this attempt. I write attempt because Bardem kind of sort of tries to do Arnaz's higher pitched voice and specific Cuban accent in some scenes, and forgets to do it altogether in most scenes. Frankly he would've been better off not attempting at all, instead he randomly "spices" some scenes up with that will only cause one to think "wait is he trying to imitate Arnaz's voice right now?". It doesn't work, and it is just step one of something that doesn't work in Bardem's performance sadly. 

Again Bardem can be charming, but Bardem is charming in what is best described often in a very sexual kind of way. This isn't Desi Arnaz who is supposed to be a far more family friendly kind of charming, that someone may find sexy, but he's not being sexual innately. Well Bardem correctly doesn't try to bring that quality when trying to be the charming Desi, however what is left over is a bit of vacuum. The flashback scenes where we see Bardem portraying Desi playing the bongos or performing a light number like "Cuban Pete" is genuinely extremely awkward to witness. There appears to be almost this active discomfort in Bardem as he tries to play it "Light" which sadly results in coming off anything but. Bardem's singing isn't good, but that's not really the problem. The problem is you don't believe him as this light entertainer. He seems so constricted, so uneasy in his manner that when Ball later claims Desi would be Cuban movie star if there was such a thing, you wonder what's she's talking about. Now Bardem is most certainly a movie star, and truly can pop off the screen, when he's playing into what makes Bardem a great performer. Here though he's playing against that quality, and in turn the compelling dramatic performer is woefully inadequate at playing the easygoing musician. 

The same is true in the scenes of Desi performing as Ricky in the reenactments and live recordings depicted. You'd think Desi was the worst performer in the world if you go by Bardem's portrayal, which again is absurdly out of place. He almost seems like he doesn't know how to stand in a given scene, and more than anything lacks the kind of grace that the real Desi did have when performing the show. He was an atypical sitcom lead for the time, but his presence was genuinely charming. Bardem though is kind of gangly when performing as Ricky, if not even oddly kind of creepy while trying to stand as Desi trying to be funny. There's nothing about him that suggests a guy with a comfort onscreen, and once again Bardem just seems entirely wrong for the part. He doesn't embody anything that you'd think of when thinking about Desi Arnaz. This could be okay theoretically, if he came up with some alternative presence that also worked even if in a different way. That's the case, he just seems like a guy who isn't quite sure why he's there, and is even more awkward when trying to perform as the type of entertainer that Bardem simply is not. Although to be fair, that is not the only task that is given to Bardem here, as really the focus of the sitcom scenes is more focused on everyone else, as he also needs to portray Desi as the husband and businessman. 

Unfortunately we hit another snag in the form of Bardem needing to deliver Sorkin's particular dialogue, which is some of the weakest he's written for the aforementioned attempt and failure at constant wit. Bardem though in particular struggles with finding the appropriate rhythm for it. Although the awkwardness is now different from his "performance" scenes, the awkwardness remains in trying to rattle off the various witty lines Sorkin gives him. Bardem's delivery is best described as low energy and he doesn't have the sort of verve needed for the material. Yes the material isn't the best here, but even if it were better, the same sort of timing and technique would be needed, and Bardem struggles with even the attempt to sell the material as good here. There's a dourness about his performance when Desi isn't performing onscreen and he struggles with finding any kind of appropriate tone. Sorkin himself does here too, but Bardem may be the worst offender in this struggle. Honestly Bardem is all over the place in the rapid dialogue scenes and there's a strange level of uncertainty in his performance that exudes from him, an uncertainty that seems ill-fitting for Desi who is written as the boss in more ways than one. Actors often speak of the struggle it is to get down Sorkin's dialogue, and I think you see a victim of that struggle here. 

I guess I'd be willing to forgive some of this if there is some aspect that Bardem finds his comfort and his place to excel with Desi. I mean we do have the film detailing the whole love affair between him and Lucy. And as much as it is shown to be this legendary thing, even if flawed, the chemistry we get between Kidman and Bardem is on the charts, near the bottom of it. They're...okay together. They aren't completely detached, but you also don't feel the needed spark between them. They're not complete strangers but you don't get the dynamic partnership the film is suggesting. So that doesn't save him for me. The last aspect he has are the dramatic scenes randomly thrown into the film where Desi refers to his early childhood when his father was arrested during a revolution and Desi obviously went through some trauma. These relatively brief scenes are where Bardem appears to be at his most comfortable. In fact it is the only time in the film where Bardem seems remotely in his element. Bardem finally calls upon his intensity in order to describe Desi's anger and despair regarding this element of his past. Of course these are so randomly implemented, and questionably written, that the only notable thing about them is that awkwardness is finally less present for Bardem albeit briefly. Far too little and far too disconnected to keep from the truth. The truth is that Javier Bardem was severely miscast here as Desi Arnaz, and throughout you see the struggle, and sadly the failure by Bardem to overcome it.