Review of Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) by Luis P — 06 Feb 2017

Hugh Grant is the heart of this film. The earnestness of his devotion to the title character is true and any chance of betrayal of his companion's follies is a wound that hurts him possibly more than her.

His performance is one of the year's very best. This is more than championing one of our guilty pleasures. Those shows or movies that we all enjoy, in spite of ourselves, when we feel we know better but can't help ourselves.

Florence may have very well been guilty pleasures for those that were her fans but not to Grant's St Clair. I would suspect that as a benefactor of the wealthy Florence, St Clair protected her out of a sense of his own fortunes.

But that is not how it is played here. His devotion is true and it runs deep. His loyalty is unfailing and when he is pained, it takes over his entire being and he reveals it without having to say a word.

Streep is vulnerable and endearing as Florence and even though we know better, why do we want to similarly want her to be protected from the cruel world of reality? We are all subject to it so why should she be any different? Maybe because there are forces of nature among us, like the innocence of children, that reach the hearts of most cynical among us.

It isn't Florence's God-awful singing that is what is beautiful, it is her vulnerability that we see in ourselves that we hope others will also give us the grace to be forgiven for our life's foibles.