Florence Foster Jenkins (2016, PG-13)

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.