The three lead actors in Florence Foster Jenkins are picture perfect in their respective roles making this a far superior offering to the recently released Marguerite, which covered the same territory. This is an endearing and decidedly quirky comedy and period piece from acclaimed director Stephen Frears (Philomena, The Queen) starring Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins and Hugh Grant as St Clair Bayfield.
The year is 1944 and ageing and ailing heiress Foster Jenkins is a highlight of the New York social scene. A generous patron of classical music in the city and founder of the genteel Verdi Club, she and her English husband-cum-manager St Clair Bayfield provide the city’s elite with entertainment. Always on hand is Madame Florence as the central artistic muse. Attending Carnegie Hall to hear a renowned soprano, she is inspired to start singing again, deciding to take lessons – which the ever loyal Bayfield greatly encourages. Enter Cosme McMoon (Simon Helberg from television’s Big Bang Theory), a struggling young pianist to provide her accompaniment. It’s his dream job … or so it seems. That is, until he realises that despite considering herself a vocal phenomenon, Madame Florence can barely hold a note, let alone a tune.
Still more confusing for McMoon, wife and husband have an unusual romantic arrangement – Bayfield is married to Madame Florence, but lives with his girlfriend, Kathleen (Rebecca Ferguson). Madame Florence decides to put on a private concert and Bayfield ensures – as he has done so often in the past – that the attendees are “true music lovers”: friends of hers who are enraptured by the joy she radiates when performing. But when Madame Florence decides to realise her dream of performing at Carnegie Hall and gives a thousand tickets away to veterans returning from the war, Bayfield and McMoon have a potential crisis on their hands. Without being able to control the audience, can they protect the happy world they have created for her, a world of kindness and love?
So then, this is the story of a much-loved New York heiress who obsessively pursued her dream of becoming a great singer. Funny and moving, and featuring a superb performance by three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins is a fitting tribute to an irrepressible diva. Her passion for music was matched only by her determination to share it with the world, truly awful though her voice was.
It was the glorious chasm between Florence Foster Jenkins’ self-belief and her startling failings as a singer that immediately hooked writer Nicholas Martin. The story is extremely reverential towards Foster Jenkins and paints her in an extremely favourable light in spite of her musical shortcomings. Put simply, when it came to vocalisation, she was always a train wreck, training or no training.
Streep so wonderfully captures her sunny disposition, her vulnerabilities and her drive. To learn to sing so off key so often is an art in itself. And fortunately towards the end we get a brief snippet from Streep of how Foster Jenkins imagined that she was singing. I would also argue that Hugh Grant was born to play the role of her adoring husband, whose passions she finances. He looks simply splendid … and costuming is a decided feature of this piece. As for Simon Helberg, his facial expressions and awkward body movements are priceless. They continually say: “how could this be?” And yet, it is!
Foster Jenkins was one of a kind, who made a big splash in the most unlikely of ways and this is her true and enduring story for better and worse. Nicholas Martin’s script and Stephen Frears’ direction give it feel-good appeal from the get go to the final credits. Rated PG, Florence Foster Jenkins scores a 7½ out of 10.
Director: Stephen Frears
Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant
Release Date: 5 May, 2016
Rating: PG
Alex First
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television