Review of Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) by Leon B — 11 Dec 2016

Review:

This is definitely a unique, true story about a wealthy lady, Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep), who has a strong passion for music, and has contributed a lot of her wealth to support various music productions. She then decides to pursue her dream to sing, so with the help of her loving husband St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), they hire an impressive pianist, Cosme McMoon (Simon Helberg) so she can practice her songs and, eventually, play in front of a live audience. The only problem with this sweet story, is that fact that Florence is an awful singer but her passion and belief in performing, makes her husband push for her to pursue her dream. Cosme, thinks that the whole fiasco is truly hilarious but Clair manages to convince him to perform with Florence, even though he is worried that his career will be tarnished because of her terrible singing. After her first performance, word soon spreads around the community about her terrible singing, so everyone flock to the theatres to witness the truly unique singing experience, which will eventually go down in history. As usual, Meryl Streep is excellent as Florence and her relationship with her husband, Clair, was touching and quite emotional. Hugh Grant played the dashing Clair very well, and although he knew that his wife couldn't sing a note, he would do anything to make sure that his wife was happy. Cosme was also a great addition to the project, and the fact that he really did play the piano, was quite impressive, so in all, it's an enjoyable movie which is full of mixed emotions from the beginning to end. The only problem that I found with the movie was that there wasn't much depth to the characters, even though they led these weird and wonderful life's but apart from that, it's a joyful movie which brings to light a part of history, that is truly unique. Enjoyable!

Round-Up:

Meryl Streep really can play any role that is brought to her! She has proved, time and time again, that she is the best actress of all time, and I really don't think that this movie would have been taken seriously if she wasn't playing the lead. The movie was directed by Stephen Frears, 75, who also brought you Gumshoe, My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, Accidental Hero, Mary Reilly, High Fidelity, the Queen, Philomena and the Program, so he has covered many different genres in his lengthy career. He certainly pushed Streep to the limit in this film, which made it believable and a fun watch but I'm sure there was more to the real Florence, because of her history with illness and the strange arrangement that she had with her husband. Anyway, it's definitely worth a watch and I'm sure that it will touch many hearts around the world.

Budget: $29million.

Worldwide Gross: $44.3million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their biography/comedy/dramas, starring Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson, Christian McKay, David Haig and John Sessions. 6/10.