Memorable, crazy movie

Brilliant and touching

An Exercise In Nonsense

It is so daring, it is so ambitious, it is so thrilling and weird and pointed and powerful. I never knew where it was going.

Florence Foster JenkinsUnlike any other biography, it is to-the-point fast paced hilarious feature that demands attention of the viewers through its innovative structure of the script and an eerie perspective. Despite of being a musical, it fails to create the anticipated magic on screen, although it is rich and visually pleasing on costume design and make-up design. The writer being aware of its ironic and comic tone of the plot doesn't install any funny bits forcibly and instead lets it flow swiftly to the shore. Nicholas Martin; the writer, has done an amazing work on writing such a gripping and light screenplay which could have easily been darker and heavier than it seems. Stephen Frears; the director, as always is no short on execution or editing and conveys its message completely within 110 minutes of runtime. Possessing such a bigger cast, the makers manipulates the audience accordingly and uses their potential wisely where every actor is giving their best like Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant and even Simon Helberg; as a supporting cast. Surprisingly, it is a plot driven feature that gives adequate screen time to each and every character and gives them enough room and range for them to factor in. Florence Foster Jenkins is a sharp and genuine whisper that fuels on its subtle yet heart-breaking emotions that is mostly drawn out by its stellar performances.

Based on a true story: in 1944, the title character (played by Meryl Streep) is wealthy patroness of the arts in New York. She has a chaste marriage to St Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) who has a secret relationship on the side but adores Florence to the point of being co-dependent. He and others encourage her to take singing lessons and perform despite the fact that she cannot sing.There is a charm and entertainment value in this movie and how can it not be considering the talent involved. In addition to engaging performances by Streep and Grant (plus Simon Helberg as Florence's pianist accompanist), the movie is well directed by the brilliant and seasoned Stephen Frears ("My Beautiful Launderette", "Dangerous Liaisons", "The Grifters", "The Queen", "Philomena").To take on this true story is quite challenging. As fiction, it would be easily dismissed as unbelievable. Yet again, truth is stranger than fiction here. While the viewer is taken through the events, we are given too little information about St Clair and others for setting Florence up for possible humiliation. She seems spared by her naivete and some occasional sitcom-like attempts to keep the truth from her.It's hard to pin down what exactly is missing in a movie with such potential. Maybe, it needed an approach that is at least as surreal as the story itself. Plus more understanding of some very unusual characters. By the end, it felt like it could only go so far despite the talent involved.

In my youth, the name Florence Foster Jenkins was always a source of laughter as belonging to the world's worse soprano who had an inability to sing on pitch. (A case in point was her infamous attempt at singing the famous Queen of the Night aria, ("Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen") I have not seen the other recent film "Marguerite" (2015) which was very loosely based on her career but this film is closer to her real life. For example, it turns out she was suffering from syphilis caught from her husband Dr. Frank Jenkins early on. So she was perhaps not completely in her right mind afterward.But she made the best of her life as she saw it.Meryl Streep plays Florence with her usual skill in another Oscar-worthy performance, Hugh Grant plays her "sort-of-husband" and manager St. Clair Bayfield (they avoided any conjugal relations by mutual agreement and he had his own real marriage.) and is a fine match for Streep.However, the big surprise is Simon Helberg (Wolowitz on The Big Bang theory) who plays the sorely-tried accompanist to Madame Jenkins, Cosmé McMoon,"McMunn" originally, but that is not mentioned in this film.Although Helberg doesn't avoid McMoon's effeminate gestures, he doesn't overdo them either. (How about best-supporting actor?) Well-done all around!

Meryl Streep can play any role. This is evident when you see her turn the story of a delusional heiress into a retelling of a tender romance. Florence Foster Jenkins, because she was so wealthy, could afford to pay people to praise her. Instead, she wanted to earn their adulation by singing great operatic arias. There may be reasons why she could not hear her own voice as clearly as others could. No excuses - she loved the music too much to think that her heart would not make up for any technical failings in the execution of song. The wonder is that the story becomes a love story, not an operatic 'Dumb and Dumber.' Hugh Grant's character, Florence's husband, at first seems to be a duplicitous continental gigolo. The viewer soon learns that this judgment is facile. Because this is a true story, it's impossible to say that the plot makes no sense. Of course it makes sense - in real life, some nonsense makes sense. Florence could have been a vain scatterbrained doyenne, blind to the feelings of the people around her. The scriptwriters make sure that you understand, eventually, that she is not that person. Getting to realize takes a gradual unfolding of the plot that makes you want to protect Mrs. Jenkins. Outwardly, she is a matron dressed with good taste and panache. Inwardly, she is a delicate flower. Meryl Streep shows this nicely.