With this little alliteration, the summary line that is drawn from the actual dialogue of "Florence Foster Jenkins" can be viewed from different angles. On the macro plane, music is a common language that draws people together in harmony. On a personal level, it is the miracle that, in this endearing biopic, helps our heroine survive 50 years of syphilis (doctors say that 20 years is a rare phenomenon), contracted on wedding night. FFJ (I'll fondly call her), despite her tragic predicament, enjoyed 76 years of glorious life from 1868 to 1944. Being superrich helped, but her strength was in her heart of gold and her bubbling spirit that was almost girlish. And her love of music, for course.
The movie zeroes in on the concluding act, so to speak, of her life. As this not QEII, Margaret Thatcher, or even Edith Piaf, I don't suppose we should feel ignorant for not knowing about her legendary personal concert in Carnegie Hall, generally with the dubious distinction of being the worst ever singing heard there. Here is where the story of FFJ finds its way into the heart of the moviegoers (as the protagonist found her way into the heart of the audience). While her singing is at best side-splitting comedy and at worst simple torture, it is her big heart and endearing innocence that win standing ovations. And she has the last laugh. On her death bed, after finally realizing that people are amused, rather than enraptured, by her singing, after getting over the initial shock and disappointment, she speaks her own epitaph: "people can say that I couldn't sing; but they cannot say that I didn't sing."
Meryl Streep turns every role she plays into gold. Nothing more needs to be said about her acting. In this particular role, however, there is also the singing. If you have watched (hear, to be exact) her in "A Prairie home companion" (2006), you know that she can easily make a living as a folk and country singer. But she also had classical vocal training, which comes handy for this movie. But the challenge here is not in singing well, but in singing badly, and that is ten times more difficult! But of course, nothing is too difficult for Streep.
Here is Hugh Grant you have not quite seen before playing JJK's totally devoted second husband St Clair Bayfield who supports her in every way. "Devoted" has some qualifications. The love is platonic, at least during the last stage of their marriage. He has a mistress (played by beautiful Rebecca Ferguson who played opposite Tom Cruise in "Mission Impossible – Rouge Nation" last year). One of the wonders of this movie is that despite this infidelity, Bayfield as portrayed by Grant will put in lump in your throat in his scenes with JJK.
Is it possible to be scene-stealing, going up against these two? The answer is yes, if your name is Simon Helberg. He plays Cosme McMoon the gentle young, nerdish accompanist for JJK, initially only for her lessons, then, with great reluctance and trepidation, her Carnegie Hall concert. I will wager that he is going to win Best Support Actor in next year's Oscar.
The movie zeroes in on the concluding act, so to speak, of her life. As this not QEII, Margaret Thatcher, or even Edith Piaf, I don't suppose we should feel ignorant for not knowing about her legendary personal concert in Carnegie Hall, generally with the dubious distinction of being the worst ever singing heard there. Here is where the story of FFJ finds its way into the heart of the moviegoers (as the protagonist found her way into the heart of the audience). While her singing is at best side-splitting comedy and at worst simple torture, it is her big heart and endearing innocence that win standing ovations. And she has the last laugh. On her death bed, after finally realizing that people are amused, rather than enraptured, by her singing, after getting over the initial shock and disappointment, she speaks her own epitaph: "people can say that I couldn't sing; but they cannot say that I didn't sing."
Meryl Streep turns every role she plays into gold. Nothing more needs to be said about her acting. In this particular role, however, there is also the singing. If you have watched (hear, to be exact) her in "A Prairie home companion" (2006), you know that she can easily make a living as a folk and country singer. But she also had classical vocal training, which comes handy for this movie. But the challenge here is not in singing well, but in singing badly, and that is ten times more difficult! But of course, nothing is too difficult for Streep.
Here is Hugh Grant you have not quite seen before playing JJK's totally devoted second husband St Clair Bayfield who supports her in every way. "Devoted" has some qualifications. The love is platonic, at least during the last stage of their marriage. He has a mistress (played by beautiful Rebecca Ferguson who played opposite Tom Cruise in "Mission Impossible – Rouge Nation" last year). One of the wonders of this movie is that despite this infidelity, Bayfield as portrayed by Grant will put in lump in your throat in his scenes with JJK.
Is it possible to be scene-stealing, going up against these two? The answer is yes, if your name is Simon Helberg. He plays Cosme McMoon the gentle young, nerdish accompanist for JJK, initially only for her lessons, then, with great reluctance and trepidation, her Carnegie Hall concert. I will wager that he is going to win Best Support Actor in next year's Oscar.