Florence Foster Jenkins

source: Florence Foster Jenkins

Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins in the true story about a rich woman who had no idea she's the worst classical singer of all time. Like Ed Wood, she was full of confidence, but unlike him she lived in a lie, being fooled by everyone around her. Unfortunately, unlike the movie ED WOOD, the story is very thin. The characters have no depth and the movie doesn't tell you a lot more than the little that you may know before watching it, simply because there isn't much more than that. Like the real characters, the story is flat and predictable. Meryl Streep is OK in her role, but since the character has no depth, it's not that impressive. The only thing that is amazing about this whole story is how a person could be so delusional about her lack of talent. The singing in the movie may seem exaggerated for comical effect, but this is actually as bad as the real Florence sang and it was that awful, butchering one classical piece at a time. If you want to see a wonderful movie about a person who devoted his life for his passion, but unfortunately lacked any talent, watch Ed Wood instead. With Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg.

I was umming and ahing for quite some time whether to see this or not after first hearing about it, and once I saw the first trailer. But as it was directed by Stephen Frears, I felt that was enough to give it a go. Also, anything starring Meryl Streep is worth thinking about seeing at least. Also, the trailers seemed to purposefully hide her voice as that is the main part of the story. That was good marketing as I feel it will attract to hear how bad her voice really is. Some of you may have already seen a film earlier this year with the same story called Marguerite. Sadly, I did not. But it is always a fascinating thing when two films are released pretty close to each other talking about the same thing. One recent example was when Snow White And The Hunstman, and Mirror Mirror: The Untold Adventures Of Snow White were released in 2012 a couple of months apart. I don't know how these things happen, but it always a nice topic to discuss. It is not often that I see a film at the cinema that gives me a lot of laughs as most straight-out comedies do not appeal to me. But I can now add this one to the small list. I have been fascinated by this true story since I heard about this and Marguerite being made. The film does explain that in parts. But I think it is comedy that was winning me over early on. For the rest of the film, I had a big smile of my face and was pretty satisfied with how everything ended in the end. I really liked the old fashioned feel to it and I can see it being a big winner with the elderly cinema-goers. Also, the production design of the time period was great to look at. It is set in 1940's New York and it felt great to look at with the steam flying off the street and the style of cars was a delight to witness. Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant are wonderful together and are the biggest draw out of the other performances. I appreciate Streep's performances more than love them. However, I really liked this particular leading role. It is probably because the performances reminded me so much of the character of Hyacinth Bucket from the sitcom, Keeping Up Appearances. Hugh Grant was great and made me forget how good an actor he is, especially in comedies. His posh British voice fitted into the time period perfectly and you can feel that Grant was born into the wrong era. Simon Helberg was a real crowd-pleaser as the main supporting role. I was really happy to see Rebecca Ferguson back on the big screen. She was brilliant in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, and I am glad to see she her getting noticed. The only negatives worth mentioning was probably some of the running gags in the film felt like they were running out of steam towards the end. Also, there was a small part to Streep's character that I did not like about. So there was a part of the film where I could not sympathise to root for the character. But all in all, I had a very good time. It was certainly a good decision to go and see it in the end. It was a lot funner then I thought it would be and the strong performances of Streep and Grant certainly helped that. It does have a sitcom style of approach to the story and I think that will please the audience and will do well in the box office. However, I still don't feel that they explained how the main character became so popular or why she is much loved. But I will still recommend this, especially if you are in the mood for a few laughs.

Initially, this movie did not work for me. The set and costume design were impeccable and the structure and basic story were solid. But I just felt that the acting was over-blown, the chemistry between the actors was non existent, and the script did not zing or engage you. But I got a better grasp of the movie the second time I saw it. And I realised that terrible opera singer and socialite Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) was a kind of hero. After a disastrous early life in which her father died and her first husband gave her syphilis, Jenkins used an inheritence to become a patron of the arts. She organised concerts, put herself out there and followed her dreams. Yes, the movie does make fun of Jenkins' off-key performances, but it also explores some ideas, such as how people delude themselves, and how other people support their delusions. Also how people use and deceive others for their own ends -- Florence's husband St Clair Bayfield (a brilliant Hugh Grant) comes across as a terrible cad, flagrantly keeping a mistress in an apartment Florence pays for, while pretending to adore Florence in exchange for a comfortable lifestyle. But he claims that Florence is aware of all this -- so is she also using him? And is it her friends, or Florence herself, who created the culture where no one was brave enough to tell the rich lady the truth? In many cases, it suited people financially to protect her delusions, and admittedly it created some absurd situations.