Unlikable Characters


I'm mainly talking about Meryl's character here, but some others get honorable mention. My gripe was really just that she was not a very nice or good person at all. She even made her bandmate/boyfriend feel like crap most of the movie for no reason. She showed up to her kids lives when they were all adults and expected some kind of reconnection. And that ending was so lame. She goes to the wedding and plays a few songs to win back everyone's love. Ridiculous.

I just couldn't really connect with her on any level because she was so unlikable and aside from being a decent musician she had no redeeming qualities. There was also the daughter who was a hot mess, the unapologetic gay son that hated her for some reason, the try-hard son who was completely fake to her until the very end, the bitchy replacement mom that shows up out of nowhere and completely changes the dynamic of the film from a mother-daughter reconnection to a film about an aging female rocker's problems.

Overall they kind of just came together in a very weird mashup that makes the film hard to watch.

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 Idiots

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I had no interest in any of the characters. None of them were likable. The only exception possibly being Rick Springfield, but that is because he is the only reason I watched this pile of crap to begin with.

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Yep.

A bunch of unlikable characters, and a bunch of unlistenable songs.



What a mess of a flick.

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Yeah, I gotta agree with everyone above on this thread. Maybe they can open for Danny Collins on his upcoming tour.

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Bad decisions make good stories (but not this time).

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I would agree that most of the characters were unlikable.

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... it seems, for me at least, some of the characters were so unlikable precisely bc they were so real ...

Altho, exaggerated mostly for screen in the movie, Ive definitely experienced resentment in the form of bitter comments from my adult children -


The scene where Ricki reunites with her sons in the restaurant was an example of where a mom would feel really torn between extreme guilt or either slapping the snot out of a kid, and what a mom ends up doing: gracefully accepting the bites while with-holding anger or shame, try to be pleasant ...


The gay son was relentless with bitterness - and the other son skirting around about his wedding bc he didnt want the mom there ... These are real life issues that go on in families ... naturally, not likable ...


Sometimes, I think kids in their young teens exaggerate and dramatize so much emotionally that some life issues carry over into adult-hood drama that is not based on a full reality of the past ...
Although their mom just leaving and staying gone all the time, in this case, was a real huge issue ...

I thought Streeps character made a great point - see new topic I posted on this ...



The step-mom was really unlikable bc she just gloated - it was a realistic and incredible piece of script writing where she literally bragged about her mothering while displaying the resentments of it at the same time ...
In the end, she took the high road which made her representative of most people ... or at least I like to think so ... it is up to the viewer to decide if her motives were designed to impress her family, or were pure in heart ...




One really unlikable thing about Streeps character was her constant poor-mouthing - apparently old, rut-gig musicians do this? I have not seen it ...
But for whatever reason, her personality was such that she constantly lamented lack of money and had no shame in asking for financial help ... and when she told the son at the wedding her boyfriend had sold an expensive guitar to get them there - I was like - omg! Every one, even the son on his wedding day should be made to feel guilty bc shes broke? So many scenes had these 'broke' comments from her - Im surprised the script did not have her kids throwing that right back in her face as 'If you had'nt left you might be doing better financially'

Does any one know some one who poor-mouths in that shameless way?


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But she was ASKED to come back! She had no money and yet she spent all she had on the flight. It seemed really stupid to make her stay at a hotel in the first place as they lived at Kensington Palace anyway. I don't see it as a cheap and silly behaviour trait. She was broke and she was asked to come and help.

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the unapologetic gay son that hated her for some reason,


Not that I'm defending any of the people in this movie, because I thought the movie was bad, but why should he be apologetic? His mom ditches all 3 kids to go be a piss poor rock star, she assumes the fact that he's gay is not real, he says he was born gay, and she says "I was born Ricki!" no, no you weren't.

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog

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she wasnt?

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No, she was born Linda or Laura something.

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog

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It is the greatest feminist movie ever you should enjoy and believe it

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I thought the sons and the step-mom were likeable characters.

The sons (to me) represented both ends of the spectrum when it comes to a child's relationship with an absent parent. The oldest son (for many reasons in addition to the abandonment) resents Ricki while the younger son struck me as the type that longs for reconnection.

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Viewed a second time on cable, I have to say I liked least Kevin Kline's character and the step mother, Maureen,(M0).

The movie is packed with flawed characters, but at least I could understand their wounds and where they were coming from, But Kline's character gets stoned, has a harmless exchange with his ex, then Mo leaves her dying father and takes the red eye back to Indianapolis to "be with her family" and kick the ex out of her house.

Mo plays the happy homemaker who makes the best French Toast and coffee, but in the following scene is waiting for Ricki as she comes out the shower to discuss what's best for Linda.

Like the "Mo Mansion", there was just something about Maureen and her marriage that seemed very fake and artificial.

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