Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) is about a real woman. Jenkins was a wealthy New York socialite who loved music passionately and sang; the problem was that she could not hold a note. Her husband managed her circle and the press for years to keep her from finding out. Then she decided to give a concert at Carnegie Hall. That protection is the film's moral question. Does he love her, is he using her, or both? The film leaves it open and draws him as neither hero nor villain. The real concert took place at Carnegie Hall in 1944 and the house was full. Jenkins died shortly afterwards. Her recordings can still be heard. Stephen Frears directed. Meryl Streep plays Jenkins, Hugh Grant her husband St Clair Bayfield, and Simon Helberg her pianist. Streep worked separately at singing badly; the voice being wrong was not enough, the wrongness had to be convincing. She was nominated for Best Actress. It runs 110 minutes. Good for: adaptations of true stories, gentle comedy, and Meryl Streep. Less good for: the film keeps moving between laughing at Jenkins and protecting her, and that indecision reads as unfinished to some viewers. Her illness is mentioned and never pressed. The pace is slow.