Comedy,
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The story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York
heiress who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, despite having a
terrible singing voice.
Director: Stephen Frears
Writer: Nicholas Martin
Stars: Meryl Streep,
Hugh Grant,
Simon Helberg
Storyline
Florence Foster Jenkins , an heiress form NYC always wanted to be a
concert pianist and play Carnegie Hall. An injury in her youth deterred
that dream. So she sets out to sing her way to Carnegie Hall knowing the
only way to get there would be "Practice Practice Practice " . Her
husband supports her venture and the true story of Florence Foster
Jenkins playing Carnegie Hall becomes a truly historic event.
Florence Foster Jenkins Reviews
Genre
labels shape your expectations of a movie but they are also manipulated
by promoters to influence audience response. Both Marguerite (2016) and
Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) are being sold as "hilarious comedies"
whereas in reality they both tell a sad story of self-deception and
mental frailty, albeit in funny ways. Marguerite is a comedy of manners,
while Florence is a tragi- comedy, the genre that shows the sad truth
behind the apparently ridiculous. Both films are bio- pics, with one
satirising vanity the other telling a tragic tale about a mental illness
that is displayed on an operatically grand scale.
Unlike the
fictitious Marguerite who is 'loosely based' on the real person,
Florence is closely based on the wealthy and generous arts socialite
Florence Foster Jenkins who came to public notoriety when she hired
Carnegie Hall for her operatic recitals in 1944. Both films (and still
available YouTube recordings) show the full force of how badly the real
Florence sang, but that's where the similarity ends. Early in the film
we learn that Florence (Meryl Streep) has defied medical science by
living well beyond the usual lifespan of a syphilis victim, a disease
she contracted on marrying when 18 years old. She endured decades of
archaic mercury and arsenic medication with progressive loss of mental
functions and chronic exhaustion. Her second marriage remained celibate
by mutual agreement and her husband (Hugh Grant) was free to have
affairs but was devotedly protective of Florence. The cinematic impact
of these facts change the film from a satire to a study of pathos and
tragedy as Florence is seriously unwell and singing is the only thing
keeping her alive.
While Marguerite amplifies the ridiculous as
seen from the other side of the Atlantic, Florence is an American-owned
story and any ridicule is tempered with compassion. The combined acting
virtuosity of icons Streep and Grant will most likely earn the film
Academy nominations as these timeless stars are superb in their parts
and their chemistry together is wonderful. Top production values are
evident in the period set and costumes, and the whole film has an
elegant authenticity that underscores the seriousness of mental
degeneration, whether its on the stage of Carnegie Hall or elsewhere.
Audiences might leave cinemas still chuckling at the singing of
Marguerite and Florence, but many will leave Florence with sympathy for
her desperate desire to be something that nature made impossible.
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