Ricki and the Flash croons an ironic serenade for marriage

Some truths, even when twisted by Hollywood spin, hold up under the torque: The marriage bond outlasts its legal termination, divorce wreaks a wide swath of destruction, and broken children do not heal just by growing up. Ricki and the Flash confronts the fallout from one parent’s selfish choices but tries to tidy it all up with a final group sing-along.

Ricki Rendazzo (Meryl Streep) is the lead singer of Ricki and the Flash, Fleetwood Mac wannabes traveling the bar circuit around Los Angeles. Many years before, Ricki—her name is really Linda Brummel—walked out on her husband and three young children to pursue rock ’n’ roll stardom. The dream never materialized. By day, Ricki works as a grocery store cashier, not earning enough to stave off a bankruptcy filing.

At his wits’ end, Ricki’s ex-husband, Pete Brummel (Kevin Kline), asks her to return to Indianapolis. Their recently married daughter, Julie (Mamie Gummer), has attempted suicide after her husband left her for another woman. Ricki awkwardly tries to console her bitter and despondent child, who is facing the second soul-shattering abandonment of her life.

Ricki also learns her family has kept things from their prodigal wife and mother: Her older son, Joshua, is getting married soon, and her younger son is a homosexual. “I was born Ricki!” she retorts to his declaration that he was born gay. Self-absorbed and impenitent, Ricki’s character is not inspiring.

But Streep is.

The three-time Oscar winner sings like a veteran rocker—a slightly mellower Janis Joplin. Although Streep was 65 when she started working on Ricki and the Flash (rated PG-13 for thematic material, brief drug content, sexuality, and language), she holds her own with Rick Springfield (Ricki’s love interest and Flash lead guitarist, Greg) and the other professional musicians with whom director Jonathan Demme stocked the band. Reportedly, the band’s numerous on-screen performances were recorded live and did not require overdubs.

At Joshua’s wedding, Ricki and the Flash take over the stage from a drab house band, à la Marty McFly at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Ricki belts out Bruce Springsteen’s “My Love Will Not Let You Down.” Her obstinate positivity slowly wins over the contemptuous crowd, including her family. They get out of their seats, join in the song, and dance happily ever after.

In 1903, G.K. Chesterton pointed out to an atheist debater, “If the Christian God really made the human race, would not the human race tend to rumours and perversions of the Christian God ... [W]ould not people far from the centre have a muddled version of that fact?” Although it muddles far from the center, Ricki and the Flash portrays the inevitable brokenness that follows the violation of holy matrimony. And it points to the day when the Bridegroom will sing to his Bride, “My love did not let you down.”