I enjoyed
this movie quite a bit more than I thought I would. I’m definitely in the camp that thinks that,
while Meryl Streep is obviously a marvelously-good actress, it sometimes feels
as though she gets nominated for Oscars by virtue of being in a movie, regardless of whether her performance in it is
really one of the absolute best of the year.
I went into the film bracing myself for the comic badness of the singing
and prepared to be decently diverted, but I came away quite impressed with the
film overall.
Florence,
a wealthy society lady, has long been a devoted friend of the arts, showing
generous patronage to others’ works and taking part in lavish theatricals put
together by herself and her husband St. Clair.
But while she is an ardent lover of the stage, most particularly music,
her lack of talent in that area is aggressively evident. However, St. Clair has spent their marriage
performing convoluted and expensive machinations to ensure that Florence
remains cheerfully unaware of that fact, supplying her with “concert” audiences
predisposed to be kind to her. But as
Florence’s ambitions grow, it becomes harder and harder for St. Clair to shield
her from those who would react to her singing as the outrageous joke that it
is.
The story
is better than I expected. There’s the
as-advertised comically-bad singing and Florence’s oblivious one-liners about
her “talent,” but there’s also a fine mix of humor and heart, along with some
really engaging character arcs. The
dynamic between Florence and St. Clair (as well as her pianist Cosmé’s
relationship with them both) is excellent, and I’m particularly intrigued by
St. Clair’s story and the lengths he’s gone to over decades to allow Florence
to do what she loves in a safe space free from mockery.
I haven’t
been totally enamored by a few of Streep’s performances in recent years (August:
Osage County, Ricki and the
Flash,) but she’s very good here. We’ll
leave the singing aside, since the trailers covered that ground quite
accurately. Instead, I want to highlight
Florence’s interesting blend of vanity, warmth, and quirkiness. She’s over-the-top dramatic and tone-deaf in
more ways than one, but she also has an enormous heart that overflows at simple
beauties, and despite her highfalutin status, she has a way about her that
puts those around her at ease (and not just because they’re disarmed by how bad
her singing is.) As good as Streep is,
though, I absolutely have to hand it to her co-stars as well. Hugh Grant is sublime as the flawed but
well-meaning St. Clair, equal parts jaded partier, hopeless romantic, and sharp
wheeler-dealer. It’s a type of
performance I don’t think I’ve ever seen from him before, and he carries it off
wonderfully. Also very good is Simon
Helberg (Howard from The Big Bang Theory)
as Cosmé. In his hands, the soft-spoken
pianist is delicate and a bit awkward, but he grows tremendously fond of both
Florence and St. Clair in his own way, even as he reels at the possibility of
what being Florence’s accompanist could do for his career. His facial reactions during his first session
with Florence are worth the price of admission.
Warnings
Sexual
references, smoking/drinking, and thematic elements.
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