FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS (PG-13)
Released by Paramount Pictures/BBC Films
Review by Dan Bringhurst
FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, starring Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, and Simon Helberg, was directed by Stephen Frears in a near minimalist fashion, with the most obvious of strengths belonging to Grant for breaking his typecast role as the chauvinist romancer.
The legendary Meryl Streep is equally amazing in that she seamlessly represents the true-to-life Florence Foster Jenkins by way of her uncanny failure to hold a tune – and I DO MEAN UNCANNY. But I’ve gotten ahead of myself.
FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS is about a woman (Streep) who believes she’s exceptionally talented – a belief compounded by her husband (Grant) for reasons wholly due to a desire to spare her feelings. Nobody must laugh, and if they do, he’ll take measures to ensure she knows nothing of it; be it purchasing all the papers with a printed review, or ejecting hecklers from the crowd.
All throughout their marriage, which incidentally is complicated due to her having contracted syphilis from a previous husband, he has protected her from the raw opinions of those who have heard her high pitched, often painful squeals. And now she has the money and pull to schedule a show at Carnegie Hall.
Clearly, this is horrible news because in due time everyone will know via broadcast, print, and the crowd, what Bayfield (Grant) has fought so long to conceal. The outcome might be a little familiar, but as Meryl Streep is at the heart of the inevitable collapse, we are certainly all in good hands.
FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS is hilarious, sad, and tender, and it offers a glimpse into the life of a man who loves someone so much that he would build a cocoon around them as to keep everything but his own opinion at a safe distance. In the end, it’s the cast that makes this work, and that’s more than enough to bolster this fine piece of filmmaking from the gifted Stephen Frears.
