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Florence Foster Jenkins - Meryl Streep creates another unforgettable character
So, like most people, you probably want to know just who Florence Foster Jenkins was and why there is a movie about her. Well…Jenkins was possibly the worst singer to ever perform in Carnegie Hall. A well-off socialite in Manhattan in the early 20th century, Florence came to the conclusion that recital stages needed a soprano like her. She started life as a pianist, but a hand injury convinced her to become a singer. After divorcing the husband, who gave her syphilis on their wedding night, she took up dating a British actor St. Claire Bayfield, who became her promoter, who guarded her from media attention and had affairs on the side to compensate for the chaste relationship required by Jenkins’ syphilis. Over the years, Jenkins performed operatic arias in front of carefully vetted society people, picked by Bayfield, with the understanding that they would be supportive of her so-called singing. Jenkins’ singing, can be heard in a few recordings on Youtube and is painful to endure. She teamed up with a pianist, Cosme McMoon (yes, that really WAS his name) who could manage to follow her singing, which lacked pitch, cadence, melody and tone. Her voice was worse than a cat in heat. The carefully staged recital fantasies went on until she insisted on performing at Carnegie Hall in 1944 and Bayfield could not filter or bribe the audience. What followed courted disaster. This movie takes an abbreviated look at this genuinely bizarre story, starting at the Carnegie Hall event. It’s condensed for time, but the movie narrative hits the main points in this poor, deluded woman’s “career”.
The movie stars a well-padded Meryl Streep as Florence, Hugh Grant as Bayfield and Simon Helberg as Cosme McMoon. In addition, Streep actually did sing her parts in the film. Apparently Streep, who is actually a decent singer, had to prepare carefully in order to sing so badly….and it really IS bad. Her portrayal of Jenkins is of a very sweet lady, completely unaware and unaffected by how she is heard by others. It’s also hard to avoid thinking that, being several decades after her syphilis infection and after unsuccessful treatment with mercury and arsenic, her brain had deteriorated to the point where she lived in a fantasy. Streep really hits all the buttons on that. Hugh Grant is also excellent as the fawning, supportive Bayfield, who manages to keep Florence from knowing how awful she is, while carrying on an affair with another woman. His upper-crust British mannerisms work perfectly in this context.
I went to this movie unsure. It looked like a light comedy, but knowing the actual story of Jenkins, it seemed almost mocking to make this unfortunate woman into a fool. I was surprised to find that it really handled the story well. Jenkins was such an effervescent character that she never really realized that, if she appeared in public without Bayfield’s protection, the audience would laugh and the critics would eviscerate her. Bayfield, in spite of his infidelity, is genuinely concerned for her “career” and well being. McMoon plays on, as though all this is high seriousness. The movie stays light and mostly implies the tragedy that underlies the story. It works much better than I expected. I will go out on a limb this early in the season and say that Streep’s performance is Oscar worthy. Once again, she creates an unforgettable character, even if it’s a light comedic character. I can’t imagine a better character coming out of a heavy drama of the sort that Oscar-pickers prefer. Doing her own execrable singing just adds to the performance.
The look of the movie is quite enjoyable. It’s a digitally re-created, sepia-tinted Midtown Manhattan of the 1930s and 40’s. It’s so much more convincing that the Boston + NY Skyscraper Manhattan that was created for the recent Ghostbusters re-boot. This New York movie works. Florence Foster Jenkins is not a heavy or consequential movie and not an epic of any sort except for Streep’s performance, but it is quite enjoyable and well done. As light movies go, it’s a gem.
So, like most people, you probably want to know just who Florence Foster Jenkins was and why there is a movie about her. Well…Jenkins was possibly the worst singer to ever perform in Carnegie Hall. A well-off socialite in Manhattan in the early 20th century, Florence came to the conclusion that recital stages needed a soprano like her. She started life as a pianist, but a hand injury convinced her to become a singer. After divorcing the husband, who gave her syphilis on their wedding night, she took up dating a British actor St. Claire Bayfield, who became her promoter, who guarded her from media attention and had affairs on the side to compensate for the chaste relationship required by Jenkins’ syphilis. Over the years, Jenkins performed operatic arias in front of carefully vetted society people, picked by Bayfield, with the understanding that they would be supportive of her so-called singing. Jenkins’ singing, can be heard in a few recordings on Youtube and is painful to endure. She teamed up with a pianist, Cosme McMoon (yes, that really WAS his name) who could manage to follow her singing, which lacked pitch, cadence, melody and tone. Her voice was worse than a cat in heat. The carefully staged recital fantasies went on until she insisted on performing at Carnegie Hall in 1944 and Bayfield could not filter or bribe the audience. What followed courted disaster. This movie takes an abbreviated look at this genuinely bizarre story, starting at the Carnegie Hall event. It’s condensed for time, but the movie narrative hits the main points in this poor, deluded woman’s “career”.
The movie stars a well-padded Meryl Streep as Florence, Hugh Grant as Bayfield and Simon Helberg as Cosme McMoon. In addition, Streep actually did sing her parts in the film. Apparently Streep, who is actually a decent singer, had to prepare carefully in order to sing so badly….and it really IS bad. Her portrayal of Jenkins is of a very sweet lady, completely unaware and unaffected by how she is heard by others. It’s also hard to avoid thinking that, being several decades after her syphilis infection and after unsuccessful treatment with mercury and arsenic, her brain had deteriorated to the point where she lived in a fantasy. Streep really hits all the buttons on that. Hugh Grant is also excellent as the fawning, supportive Bayfield, who manages to keep Florence from knowing how awful she is, while carrying on an affair with another woman. His upper-crust British mannerisms work perfectly in this context.
I went to this movie unsure. It looked like a light comedy, but knowing the actual story of Jenkins, it seemed almost mocking to make this unfortunate woman into a fool. I was surprised to find that it really handled the story well. Jenkins was such an effervescent character that she never really realized that, if she appeared in public without Bayfield’s protection, the audience would laugh and the critics would eviscerate her. Bayfield, in spite of his infidelity, is genuinely concerned for her “career” and well being. McMoon plays on, as though all this is high seriousness. The movie stays light and mostly implies the tragedy that underlies the story. It works much better than I expected. I will go out on a limb this early in the season and say that Streep’s performance is Oscar worthy. Once again, she creates an unforgettable character, even if it’s a light comedic character. I can’t imagine a better character coming out of a heavy drama of the sort that Oscar-pickers prefer. Doing her own execrable singing just adds to the performance.
The look of the movie is quite enjoyable. It’s a digitally re-created, sepia-tinted Midtown Manhattan of the 1930s and 40’s. It’s so much more convincing that the Boston + NY Skyscraper Manhattan that was created for the recent Ghostbusters re-boot. This New York movie works. Florence Foster Jenkins is not a heavy or consequential movie and not an epic of any sort except for Streep’s performance, but it is quite enjoyable and well done. As light movies go, it’s a gem.