Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) - Streep, Frears and Co. drop us a delightful present

♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best True-Story Movie of the Year

 

The stars shine and look charming and game on this poster for Stephen Frears' Florence Foster Jenkins

 

In 1944, New York high society lady and patron to the musical arts Florence Foster Jenkins gets inspired by a spectacular singing performance to pick up her own singing ambition again - and perform in public. The only minor problem is that she really can't sing.

This true-story music comedy-drama is the summer's delightful present from English master filmmaker Stephen Frears (Philomena (2013)) and writer Nicholas Martin (Big Bad World (1999-01)). - It feels like a present, because it is so delightfully played and because, in the context of our time, this is a story that could have been just as wondrous twenty years ago as today or in thirty years. It is not and doesn't aspire to be immediately relevant to today's world, which may sound like a bad thing but is actually liberating.

Florence Foster Jenkins is especially amazing the more showbiz-savvy people around the world, because it has to do with the musical and high societal part of New York in the 1940s but also because it is such an actors' film: Meryl Streep (Doubt (2008)) gives a performance as the title character which is stunning, fantastic and which manages to show yet another side to the amazing actress' unbelievable breadth. Her singing performances in the film, - which she does herself, managing to hide completely that she has a perfectly good singing voice, - are the film's best parts, and especially the one towards the end had me laughing hysterically and crying at the same time. Streep delivers with such a sincerity and empathy for the character that Florence isn't just funny beyond belief, - it is also profoundly moving. - Especially in the many moments when it is pretty obvious that the character feels she can wing her performance - on or off stage, but always with a focused audience present who do notice her every flaw, - are just priceless.

Jenkins is married to St. Clair Bayfield, whom she has a loving but platonic relationship with, due to her suffering from long-term syphilis. Hugh Grant (About a Boy (2002)) instills a boatload of feeling and humanity to Bayfield, who has a mistress (the lovely Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015))), but is capable of loving them both in different ways. Simon Helberg (A Cinderella Story (2004)), if overwrought at first, also makes a winning, beautiful performance as Jenkins' pianist Cosmé McMoon, a nervous, tender, gay fellow from Texas. The sensitive characterizations are balanced with also keeping the film's vibrant humor alive throughout. In a smaller role, which includes a lovely dance with Grant, Nina Arianda (The Humbling (2014)) is a lovely broad here, and Christian McKay (Me and Orson Welles (2008)) is perfectly cast as a snotty newspaper critic.

There are moments in the film, when we don't know where it is heading. A harsher critic might write that it works in jumps and starts. It also has some minor continuity issues here and there. I trusted the filmmakers and actors completely and wasn't at all bothered by this. Florence Foster Jenkins transported me to another, captivating and very charming world. 

SPOILER At a climactic moment near the film's end, Jenkins reflects to her doting husband: "People may say I couldn't sing, but no one can say I didn't sing." This sums up the lesson of the film very well in all of its touching simplicity. At a time when masses are gloating over the cold rejections of amateur talents on primetime TV in a hundred different languages everywhere the world over, it is worth stopping and remembering the individual's worth and his/her right to express him/herself regardless of the measure of talent.

Florence Foster Jenkins is a film you shouldn't miss in the theater. It's a true joy.

Related posts:

Stephen Frears: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

Philomena (2013) - Dench astounds in Frears' powerful true-story drama

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 19 mil. $

Box office: 43.7 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Florence Foster Jenkins premiered 23 April (Belfast Film Festival) and runs 110 minutes. Filming took place in and around May 2015 entirely in the UK: In London, Liverpool, other parts of England and in Glasgow, Scotland. The film opened #8 to a 6.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it has grossed 26.7 mil. $ to date. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets to date are the UK with 4.1 mil. $ (9.4 %) and Australia with 2.7 mil. $ (6.2 %). The film has yet to open in a few big markets (namely Germany and Japan). Many are hoping it will attract Oscar nominations for Streep and perhaps Grant and Helberg, and I certainly hope it will not be forgotten and decided old hat by January as I think it is in danger of, (abetted by its relatively small gross.) Florence Foster Jenkins is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Florence Foster Jenkins?