Florence Foster Jenkins

Year: 2016
Genre: Comedy
Directed: Stephen Frears
Stars: Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson, Nina Arianda, Stanley Townsend, Allan Corduner, Christian McKay, David Haig, John Sessions, Brid Brennan, John Kavanagh
Production: Pathe Films

The story of socialite music patron turned flash-in-the-pan novelty, Florence Foster Jenkins is a tricky needle to thread. On the one hand her stranger than fiction life begs to be turned into a big screen adaptation. The world in which she inhibits certainly appeals to a certain, older crowd, while her reason for infamy slips neatly into the similarly shaggy-dog amiability of other biographical films of the last few years. Yet with stakes so low as to be non-existent, there runs a real risk of being just another fluffy confection unworthy of the full period-piece treatment. So what is one to do? Well hiring Meryl Streep would certainly hedge some bets.

Good ol' Meryl...

Florence Foster Jenkins takes place in the last year or so of the titular character's life. The Florence (Streep) of the film is a naive New York musical patron who's life long obsession with music brings her to the stage with delusions of singing as an operatic soprano. Her loving husband St. Clair (Grant) supports her musical "career" as best he can by planning performances only for friends, sycophants and members of their tight social circle. To keep her in a state of calm elation, St. Clair plants positive reviews in newspapers and promptly kicks out all "mockers and scoffers" who begin to giggle at the sound of her voice. Poor Florence can't sing, in fact a real review of her "Queen of the Night" aria, described her voice as "a cacophony of squeaks and screeches; great careering arc grasping vertiginously for high Ds, Es, and Fs, that come clucking wildly, frantically down again."

As is custom, Meryl Streep is not just adequate in the title role but an absolute vision of the screen, giving poise, respect and very real human frailty to a woman once dubbed "The biggest mass joke in New York City." Through her, we admire Florence's pluck, can understand her sense of gusto and even kind of want to live in her world where everything in life is a song. She's the living embodiment of living life with a positive perspective.

Granted much of that perspective is forged by Hugh Grant's St. Clair who fastidiously protects Florence from harsher truths. Those truths, by the way, also include his affair with seasoned actress Kathleen (Ferguson). As an act of casual roguishness, St. Clair could have easily been exacted from the same cloth as Joe Viterelli's character in Bullets Over Broadway (1994). Yet St. Clair's is a far different beast; one which hides most of his true feelings under layers of blue-blood British propriety.

Doubling as accompanist and the audience's fill-in is Cosme McMoon (Helberg) a kind if timid young man whose ambitions reach beyond his humble beginnings in San Antonio. Much like James McAvoy in The Last Station (2009), Eddie Redmayne in My Week with Marilyn (2011) and pretty much every emotional proxy in these kinds of movies Cosme's character arc is the weak half-realized center of the film. Granted Simon Helberg is commendable as the only guy in the room with a bad poker face, but he's just so unnecessary. Yet the film insists that he is, so we're invited into his inner-life and are supposed to feel triumph when he giggles about playing Carnegie Hall.

The film also has a serious third act problem that seems to almost contradict everything that came before it. Without giving too much away, the film seems to want to hammer home a theme similar to that of this year's Eddie the Eagle (2016), yet instead of feeling the buildup or the payoff of a job passably done, we get the feeling Florence is little more than an old bird whose just now stepped out of her cage. It's a shame to because the real Florence Foster Jenkins seemed winkingly aware of her contributions to public musical performance.

Much like director Stephen Frears similar Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), Florence Foster Jenkins is a charming character study about a charming woman, told during a charming time. It's got a lot a heart where it counts and performances across the board are brilliant even if they're not all necessary. Yet even with its high-bar pedigree, Florence Foster Jenkins can't help but feel a little to quaint and at times thematically dubious. Meryl Streep will no doubt be nominated for a few awards this year because of this film. But as the credits rolled I didn't thing where she will win but whether the winner of Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy will mention her in her acceptance speech.

Final Grade: C