{"id":601,"date":"2017-05-06T07:27:37","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/2017\/05\/06\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewsflorence-foster-jenkins-movie-review\/"},"modified":"2017-05-06T07:27:37","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:37","slug":"httptheblurb-com-aureviewsflorence-foster-jenkins-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewsflorence-foster-jenkins-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Florence Foster Jenkins – movie review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The three lead actors in Florence Foster Jenkins<\/em> are picture perfect in their respective roles making this a far superior offering to the recently released Marguerite<\/i>, which covered the same territory. This is an endearing and decidedly quirky comedy and period piece from acclaimed director Stephen Frears (Philomena, The Queen<\/i>) starring Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins and Hugh Grant as St Clair Bayfield.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 which the ever loyal Bayfield greatly encourages. Enter Cosme McMoon (Simon Helberg from television\u2019s Big Bang Theory<\/i>), a struggling young pianist to provide her accompaniment. It’s his dream job \u2026 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.<\/p>\n

\"Florence-Foster-Jenkins-01\"<\/p>\n

Still more confusing for McMoon, wife and husband have an unusual romantic arrangement \u2013 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 \u2013 as he has done so often in the past \u2013 that the attendees are \u201ctrue music lovers\u201d: 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?<\/p>\n

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<\/i> 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.<\/p>\n

It was the glorious chasm between Florence Foster Jenkins\u2019 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.<\/p>\n