X
- 2016
- PG-13
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
- 2016
- PG-13
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
Summary In 1940s New York, Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep), a New York heiress and socialite, obsessively pursued her dream of becoming a great singer. The voice she heard in her head was beautiful, but to everyone else it was hilariously awful. Her "husband" and manager, St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), an aristocratic English actor, was...
Directed By: Stephen Frears
Written By: Nicholas Martin, Julia Kogan
- 2016
- PG-13
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
- 2016
- PG-13
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 51 m
Florence Foster Jenkins
71
7.0
Where to Watch
Summary In 1940s New York, Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep), a New York heiress and socialite, obsessively pursued her dream of becoming a great singer. The voice she heard in her head was beautiful, but to everyone else it was hilariously awful. Her "husband" and manager, St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), an aristocratic English actor, was...
Directed By: Stephen Frears
Written By: Nicholas Martin, Julia Kogan
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 41 Critic Reviews
71
83% Positive
34 Reviews
34 Reviews
12% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
5% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 41 Critic Reviews
71
83% Positive
34 Reviews
34 Reviews
12% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
5% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Florence Foster Jenkins isn’t really about how passion trumps art. It’s about how life is more important than art.
It would be easy to mine Jenkins’ story for silly farce and 1940s set pieces and let it coast from there, but director Stephen Frears (Philomena, The Queen) is too kind, and too nuanced, to do that. Even when she’s murdering a high C, his Florence finds the melody.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 156 User Ratings
7.0
69% Positive
107 Ratings
107 Ratings
27% Mixed
42 Ratings
42 Ratings
4% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 156 User Ratings
7.0
69% Positive
107 Ratings
107 Ratings
27% Mixed
42 Ratings
42 Ratings
4% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
This is in my top 3 of the year so far. A truly beautiful film that strikes just the right tone and features some strong performances from Streep and Grant (who gives his first real performance in a LONG time). Simon Helberg also does very good work as Cosme Mcmoon. Florence is truly a lovable character whom you just can't dislike. I felt this film was very warm-hearted in that even though it's extremely funny, it treats the title character with respect and portrays her life and relationships with complexity and realism. The dichotomy between the "scoffers and mockers" and the pure naive heart of Streep's Jenkins, who loves to sing for the pure joy of performing (no matter how terrible she is) and is a true patron of the arts brings up some interesting questions about art and happiness (and which one is more important), about the subjective quality of music, the way love takes different forms, and about the bubbles that many people end up living within, perhaps without noticing it. I left this one with a warm and happy feeling in my heart. This film is a classic, IMO. You don't need to be a lover of art or music to appreciate it but if you are you'll likely love it on a very deep level. The ending was also very strong.
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I had actually read about Florence Foster Jenkins, the socialite who dearly loved music but her love and abilities were very very far apart. It's a sad tale ultimately, and the bio movie is one of the best of the year.
Meryl Streep turns in a wonderful performance, an Oscar worthy one at that, and Hugh Grant matches her step for step as she portrays this woman. Because her loving husband played by Hugh Grant wants her to be happy and is determined to please her as much as humanly possible, her concerts are given to other friends in her socialite circle who were quite kind in real life by always praising Jenkins while knowing full well she couldn't sing worth a damn.
More touching was the fact that Jenkins suffered from syphillus courtesy of her first husband at the age of 18. Knowing sex with her second husband could kill him, theirs was a marriage of abstinence while she kindly allowed him a dalliance with another woman. As the movie suggested, it did not diminish his admiration and love for her.
That slavish attention carried over to carefully screening her private performances, bribing music papers and whomever else could possibly devastate her with a bad review. However, in 1944, she was moved by the sacrifices of our armed forces and announced she would reserve 1000 tickets and play Carnegie Hall, to the shock of her husband, the pianist played very well by Simon Bell and her friends. To top this off, she also near the same time recorded a record that was receiving airplay and gathering attention from those who knew how bad she was and in their defense, some thought deliberate.
The results are the true cap of the movie, and during the film we get laughs, determination, courage and most important love that allowed Jenkins to live far longer than most folks with her disease.
It's not your usual movie topic, but the film is done impeccably, Streep is brilliant, and you come away moved. We need more movies and people like Florence Foster Jenkins.
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For the incomparable Streep, it’s yet another performance in high C.
If you don’t confuse this with history – or with the French film “Marguerite,” a fictional piece loosely based on FFJ – you’ll come away touched. That’s mostly because of Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.
It’s another showcase for Streep — nothing new on that front, but still enjoyable.
[A] stagy, troubling, bizarrely entertaining movie.
It’s a film that dares you to give it a bad review, simply so it can turn around and call you a bully who picks on the people who try. It invites you to giggle at Florence’s horrible singing and then promptly scolds you for laughing, creating a contradiction that goes unreconciled.
One of the BEST STREEP **** funny & also touching.....i was laughing so hard in some scenes....Hugh Grant is also very good ... I highly recommend it....
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a sharp and genuine whisper..
Florence Foster Jenkins
Unlike any other biography, it is to-the-point fast paced hilarious feature that demands attention of the viewers through its innovative structure of the script and an eerie perspective. Despite of being a musical, it fails to create the anticipated magic on screen, although it is rich and visually pleasing on costume design and make-up design. The writer being aware of its ironic and comic tone of the plot doesn't install any funny bits forcibly and instead lets it flow swiftly to the shore. Nicholas Martin; the writer, has done an amazing work on writing such a gripping and light screenplay which could have easily been darker and heavier than it seems. Stephen Frears; the director, as always is no short on execution or editing and conveys its message completely within 110 minutes of runtime. Possessing such a bigger cast, the makers manipulates the audience accordingly and uses their potential wisely where every actor is giving their best like Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant and even Simon Helberg; as a supporting cast. Surprisingly, it is a plot driven feature that gives adequate screen time to each and every character and gives them enough room and range for them to factor in. Florence Foster Jenkins is a sharp and genuine whisper that fuels on its subtle yet heart-breaking emotions that is mostly drawn out by its stellar performances.
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Have Money So You Can Follow Your Dreams Even If You Are Bad: The Movie. This whole thing is pretty gross. Yeah Florence seems pretty nice as a person and all but mostly she just seems to buy favor with everyone. The nicest thing she does for her pianist is write him into her will. Is this a joke? I mean it's funny and if you don't stop to think about it it's fine. But really?
You're invited to laugh at her and with her in equal measure, feel bad for her and sometimes even revile her (or is that just me?). I don't think the movie has a stance on her. And I think it mostly lets her off the hook. I found myself agreeing with the New York Post writer as he was leaving Carnegie Hall and Hugh Grant was trying to pay him off - it's crass egoism no matter what cute colors you try to paint it.
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The problem with Florence is that she's a narcissist worthy of a bigger personal discovery than this script gives her. On her deathbed, she says "Can say I didn't try." Um, that's it? Are you sure you don' want to give her a bigger inner battle?
One of the big problems with a script like this is that people are keeping secrets that never get revealed, and the lead is too self involved to care. When secrets get revealed, that's the fun part. That's where the social embarrassment is. But in Florence, her husband keeps a secret that he cheats, Simon Helberg's character keeps a secret that he's ****, and Florence keeps a secret that she had siphyllus.
So maybe her moment in front of that Carnegie Hall crowd could have been more of a come to Jesus moment as she faced her own delusions, in front of everyone. Instead we settle for continuing the delusion that she's wonderful and everyone loves her, which helps the world not a bit.
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Production Company
Pathé,
BBC Film,
Pathé Pictures International,
Canal+,
Ciné+,
Qwerty Films
Release Date Aug 12, 2016
Duration 1 h 51 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline The inspiring true story of the world's worst singer.
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 4 Nominations
Academy Awards, USA
• 2 Nominations
BAFTA Awards
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
