Florence Foster Jenkins [DVD] [2016]

Well that was a surprise. So my missus fancies watching this over a curry one evening, and I'm thinking can't we watch the Godfather for the 1,000th time. Unsurprisingly she says no, and insists I sit through what I think is going to be a tepid comedy aimed at Streep fans and people with a low-comedy threshold.Well bowl me over, if it wasn't a thoroughly enjoyable, amusing and often touching film. Streep is , as ever, great..but the film's secret weapon is Hugh Grant, in just about his best performance since Four Weddings. Of course the man could act all along, you doubters.Am sure you know the premise. So go with it, it's great fun.

This is the story of the worst opera singer in the world ever. And it makes for an hour and a half of highly enjoyable light entertainment. Meryl Streep finds the perfect balance between ridiculous self delusion and pathos in bringing Florence Foster Jenkins to life on the screen. She'll make you laugh and cry (at times both at the same time), and though you will her to hit the right note just once, you can't help but cringe when she doesn't. Hugh Grant gets a chance to show that he actually can act, even if he plays an abysmally bad failed actor and Florence's adoring husband, constantly intent on maintaining the illusion of a happy world revolving around Florence at its center. However, it's Simon Helberg who sneaks in and steals the show as Florence's accompanist Cosme McMoon. He is comedic gold. And while with Streep one has to admire just how badly she is willing to sing in front of the camera, with Helberg it comes as a revelation what an accomplished pianist the man is. Costumes and sets are sumptuous and elaborate and if gentle comedy without violence and exciting action scenes is your thing, you should enjoy this well enough.The DVD is very good. There are subtitles for those who may need them as well as an audio description track for visually impaired audiences. Also included are various extra features, though sadly no director's commentary. - From Script to Screen - The Music and Songs of Florence - Designing the Look - Ours is a happy world - featurette - World Premiere Featurette - Deleted Scenes - Theatrical Trailer

So says Meryl Streep in one of the DVD extras, paying tribute to FFJ's courage in tackling the most challenging coloratura roles in the operatic repertoire. Anyone who's taken a serious punt on opera will have heard of FFJ, legendarily atrocious on record, the society lady who could not be stopped. And the film of her story is a gift...a Trojan Horse of a gift.It is 1944. Enter the New York high society enclosure where FFJ is a leading light of the Verdi Club. We begin with tableaux vivants and move mercilously on as 'Angel of Inspiration' Jenkins (Streep) decides it is time to return to her singing after far too long away. FFJ's 'husband', assistant, personal manager and most devoted protector, St Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), sets to work tripping the light fantastic as all-purpose knight-errant, running errands, interviewing prospective accompanists, bribing audience members and facing down spiteful journalists, all to keeps FFJ's quixotic fantasy of her own gifts as a singer alive and well; to make them real, in fact. The, ahem, lucky recruit to accompany her in recital is one Cosmé McMoon (Simon Hellberg, genuinely playing the piano himself, and that's real flop sweat too). He cannot believe his luck. Assistant conductor at the Met, Carlo Edwards (David Haig, brilliant as always) is bought-in to give her an, ahem, tune-up, and it's places please as Florence makes a successful return to singing infront of a specially invited audience. Awkwardly, the success goes right to her head, and Carnegie Hall beckons...'He's raping my ears! Make him stop!'So says FFJ whilst auditioning an overly strident pianist in one of the movie's early scenes. I remember thinking, coming as this does from an actress who deigned to appear in the Mamma Mia series, what a nerve she has. The complaint is, naturally, ironical in this movie, given what is about to happen, but therein lies at least part of the explanation as to why this DVD gets only 3-stars. Even if we are all in on the joke when it comes to Florence, a woman so transported by great art that she really believed she could do it, which is not the same thing as applauding the triple-violation of Mamma Mia (artistic, visual, and aural ravaging), ultimately the end result is the same. We are being invited to watch and listen as a woman murders music...out of her most sincere love for it. Is this tragedy? It ought to be. It is tragi-comedy, I suppose. So, though one can't help but laugh and admire the performances of the actors, it's not exactly pleasurable, and not one I'm likely to return to often.No Oscars for this movie, which is a pity, despite what I just wrote above. Streep is really heroic, replicating (despite her own musical training) the staggering ineptitude of FFJ. Rather stupidly, her complete performance of Der Hölle Rache is confined to a DVD Extra. You only get an excerpt in the film proper. This is a mistake, given how funny both Streep and Grant are in the performance, Grant managing a smile that successfully conveys the idea that St Clair is loyally supporting and encouraging his partner whilst privately throwing-up in his mouth a little. In fact the Carnegie Hall scene is too overwrought to be believable, and that FFJ could still be in her guixotic bubble afterwards is nigh on impossible to accept. The actor playing Toscanini is so obviously not Italian that the cinematic illusion faltered for me early on, but just like Cosmé McMoon the viewer is successfully drawn in and invited to play along and become an accessory to this well-intentioned deceit. And one does.Despite his gifts as pianist and in some ways visiting alien, Simon Hellberg strikes me as just a tad too millennial for the part of Cosmé (who went on to a career in bodybuilding); he's fey and his face hovers between smirk and simper in the early stages, although matters improve when he accepts his fate. As for Grant, he is...I thought splendid.The film is not overlong, it might even be too short. I would have liked more of Rebecca Ferguson's Kathleen, for one, and another round of Grant dancing wouldn't go amiss either. A British production (part of the reason it was overlooked by the Academy?), FFJ hovers between American sentimentality and the kind of barbed cruelty one might associate with European (i.e. French) cinema. This is not all, but mostly, to the good.As you can tell from the above, it's kind of on the fence, this one. Bravura performances of silly roles. Definitely worth seeing, at least once, much like listening to the real Florence Foster Jenkins. Funny the first time, but if you need me I'll be in Florida.3.5 stars out of 5.

All three main actors give exceptional performances, Nice to see Simon Helberg in a role that plays to his natural strengths as a musician, makes a delightful change from his well loved character Howard from Big Bang. Meryl Streep is faultless as Florence, having viewed actual footage of the real Florence on YouTube, she does an excellent vocal portrayal. Hugh Grant as always plays his part so touchingly well, especially when you read up on the background of Florence and realise the predicament she was left in by her first husband. Beautiful, Touching and highly entertaining.