Lucy and Desi Review: Amy Poehler pieces together a timeless romance 

Lucy and Desi, the famous Hollywood couple, captured the limelight in the '50s with their amazing chemistry that they turned into a sitcom called I Love Lucy. Amy Poehler's documentary film, Lucy and Desi, that released on Amazon Prime today, follows the lives of the famous couple, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and their shoot to success.

Pieced together from photos and videos from archives, interspaced with interviews and voice recordings by Lucielle and Desi themselves, Lucy and Desi is a wonderfully coherent narrative put together by Poehler.

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The Hollywood couple that became a household name

Amy Poehler’s film about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz thoroughly charts the love affair and the showbiz partnership of the Hollywood couple who garnered fame. The documentary explores their revolutionary influence on television, and charts how two individuals turned their love-life into a television show that achieved unimagined success.

Lucille Ball arrived in New York City as a teenager in the late ’20s, with a dream of making it in show business. She started off as a showgirl but could not proceed much in that line of work. She thus turned to modeling that landed Lucille her first successful gig. She was asked to join a team of a dozen showgirls heading out to Hollywood in 1933 to shoot for a movie. Ball immediately fell in love with Hollywood and decided to make it her home.

Desi Arnaz was a Cuban musician who came to the U.S. as a refugee with no knowledge of English. However, with his his charismatic personality and charming looks, Arnaz soon shot to success as a rumba artist.

Lucille and Desi met in 1940, on the set of the RKO musical Too Many Girls. After a short period of whirlwind romance, the duo got married despite the disapproval of many. Sadly, their careers did not leave the couple much time together and they found themselves away from each other for a good part of the first half of their married life.

To spend more time together and fulfill their desire to parent children, the couple started the sitcom I Love Lucy which allowed them more time in each others' company. Lucy and Desi explores how the couple turned their relationship into a partnership with the sitcom which was nothing but an extension of their domestic life.

Sadly, the project that was supposed to bring them together finally drove the couple apart. Lucy's talent in comedy overshadowed Arnaz, who could not cope with being cast aside while fans seranaded his wife.

The documentary charts out the entire trajectory of the sitcom, showing not only how it shot to success and brought the couple to the limelight, but also how it eventually led them to divorce.

What is interesting about Lucy and Desi is the portrayal of the narratives. It makes no attempt to judge or analyse the relationship of the Hollywood couple, but instead offers to viewers facts from which they are allowed to draw their own conclusions.

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Lucy and Desi is a meticulously pieced together puzzle

With Lucy and Desi, Amy Poehler has brought out never-before-seen archival recordings, including taped recollections and home movies, peppered with interviews and comments from the couple's children and from their colleagues like Norman Lear, Bette Milder, and Carol Burnett.

Instead of telling a story, she lets Ball and Arnaz tell their story for themselves through their own narrations and through perspectives of their family and acquaintances. This is what makes the film very impersonal and factual. It reflects no single opinion or judgement but a multiple set of perspectives.