Florence Foster Jenkins – Movie Review

Florence Foster Jenkins – PG-13
Release Date: Fri 12 Aug 2016

Meryl Streep stars as Florence Foster Jenkins, a woman who became a musical sensation for all the wrong reasons at her one and only performance in 1944. Jenkins is a legendary character; a rich widow who seemed to have had her delusions of being a singer fed by greedy friends and family. However, the movie tells this as a more tender tale of the complicated relationship between herself and her husband/promoter/enabler St. Clair Mayfield (Hugh Grant.)

The movie masterfully builds the comedy of the main couple’s lives as they audition accompanists for Jenkins’ latest round of voice lessons. This is won out by audience surrogate Cosme McMoon (Simon Helberg) who shows up for that first voice lesson of the film when the true nature of Jenkins’ lack of talent is laid bare. Streep does an admirable job of embodying Jenkins’ lack of pitch and rhythm, but the real laughs come from the reactions of Helberg (confused horror) and Grant (strained encouragement.)

Florence Foster Jenkins is a funny movie with a heart and well worth seeing in the theater.

Matthew and I saw it in the theater and had a discussion in the car: