Ricki And The Flash

Meryl Streep just loves to sing as anyone who caught her turn in Into The Woods will testify. Now she has the gift of a role as an ageing and failed rock mum - and she doesn’t disappoint.

Just to keep it in the family, Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer, who also played Streep’s child in Heartburn, plays her daughter again - Julie, who is on the verge of a divorce and an emotional breakdown.

Streep, as Ricki Rendazzo, decides to fly to the rescue when she hears the news from her ex-husband Pete (Kevin Kline). Despite the fact that she has not spoken to her three adult children since she left them to follow her star in California, she believes she can save the day.

She’s a woman of considerable contradictions - don’t be fooled by the flower power aura: she’s a Republican, hates Obama and as her youngest son Adam (Nick Westgate) discovers is also anti-gay. Her personal life is a mess, she is perpetually broke and she refuses to commit to her boyfriend Greg (Rick Springfield).

Meanwhile her other son Josh (Sebastian Stan) starts panicking for fear his mother might turn up at his imminent wedding to an environmentalist (Hailey Gates).

As Ricki starts to make up for lost time with her children her ex-husband turns up with his new wife - and sets the emotional roller-coaster in motion with Ricki bailing out fast back to California.

There’s lot of music along the way, thrown in to the mix in a none too subtle manner, although Streep manages to carry off most of it with verve and true grit. Demme shoots the band sequences brilliantly.

Whether it all adds up to much is debatable. The various threads unravel rather too chaotically and leave you hanging. Just go along for the ride and to watch Streep strut her stuff.