Don’t be turned off by the film’s title, Florence Foster Jenkins, the story of a socialite who can’t sing but thinks she can. This is a great and funny movie featuring the incredible Meryl Streep. It open nationally in mid-August so put it on your list now.
Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg) – Meryl Streep is almost certainly going to get yet another Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of socialite, patron of the musical arts, and enigmatic Florence Foster Jenkins. Who? That was my question as I got the invitation to see an early preview of the film from Stephen Frears, the exceptional director of High Fidelity, The Queen, and Philomena.
Set in 1944, we meet Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) and her doting common-law husband, St Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), an obviously rich, privileged odd couple living in a hotel in the heart of New York City. Jenkins loves music. She had been a piano prodigy as a child and had actually played at the White House. In her aging years, she had been a donor to numerous music organizations and even owned her own theater, the Verdi Club. There, they staged musical theater, and Jenkins would make a cameo appearance, sometimes in colorful, almost comedic, fashion.
Bayfield, who was younger, indulged her and seemed almost oblivious to her quirkiness. Was he a gold-digger? He was certainly cheating on her, we discover, living a second life after dark in an apartment she paid for. And Jenkins was not well, suffering for most of her adult life with syphilis, which she contracted from her first husband.
Jenkins, a friend of such notables as Arturo Toscanini, conductor of the New York Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic, decides to take opera lessons, convinced that she could become an opera singer. She believes herself to be a fine singer; she has always gotten favorable reviews when she has performed for her friends and patrons of the Verdi Club. In addition to Bayfield, everyone indulges this rich, lovable lady. For example, her voice coach, an assistant director of the Metropolitan Opera, would compliment her even though she was obviously awful. Thus, she was encouraged and decided to schedule a public appearance for charity featuring her first operatic performance.
Bayfield arranges for the concert and carefully chooses the guests. The couple auditions accompanists, ultimately hiring a young, odd-looking, modest talented Cosme McMoon, played by Simon Helberg (Howard of The Big Bang Theory). When McMoon first hears Jenkins sing, he is appalled. What has he gotten into? The next scene, in an elevator as McMoon leaves the Jenkins’ hotel apartment, is hysterical. The rest of the story tells Jenkins’ tale as an opera diva, her concerts, her recordings, and her decision to hold a benefit concert for soldiers in Carnegie Hall.
The film is played mostly for laughs but there is an undertone of pity and seriousness. Jenkins is a profoundly upbeat character housed in a sickly woman living in a physically loveless marriage. Bayfield is a loving character, a failed actor, who lives dual lives with equal commitment. And McMoon is an aspiring but unexceptional pianist conflicted between making good money as a musician while worried about playing for this most untalented woman.
Streep is incredible … as always. She must have had a blast playing this part, singing off-key with an enthusiasm that can only make the audience laugh and wince. Streep was an accomplished singer, even considering a career in opera in college. It isn’t easy singing as badly as she does in this film. FYI, she does get one opportunity to sing for real.
High Grant is … well, Hugh Grant. He was an interesting choice for this role. Not a bad one but not perfect either. The character is both serious and funny, something Grant generally does well (Four Weddings and a Funeral, About A Boy). I would have preferred Ralph Fiennes or Colin Firth, but Grant is fine. On the other hand, Helberg is perfect. He steals the film. The scenes with Streep and Helberg are movie magic.
Florence Foster Jenkins, at its essence, is a wonderful period piece about a real but forgotten person whose story makes for wonderful theater in the hands of an exceptional actress and an outstanding director.