Florence Foster Jenkins (film)

Plot

Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) is a New York City heiress and socialite who founded the Verdi Club to celebrate a passionate love for opera and music. As it is 1944 and the U.S. is in the midst of World War II, Florence is of the opinion that "music matters more than ever." St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), a British Shakespearean actor, is her husband and manager. Despite being married, Florence and Bayfield live in separate residences. She lives in a grand hotel suite while he resides in an apartment in the city with his secret mistress, Kathleen Weatherley (Rebecca Ferguson). Florence suffers from a long-term case of syphilis, which she contracted from her first husband. The illness has caused her to have various health problems for which she takes medication, including mercury and arsenic, that have toxic side effects. Due to the fear of passing the disease on to Bayfield, she remains abstinent from all sexual intercourse in her marriage, and Bayfield fulfills his sexual urges with Kathleen.

Florence decides to resume her singing lessons, which she has neglected. She hires pianist Cosmé McMoon (Simon Helberg) and introduces him to her vocal coach, Carlo Edwards (David Haig), the assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. McMoon is shocked to discover that Florence is a terrible singer, yet Bayfield and Edwards pretend she is wonderful, with the former giving McMoon a dire warning not to criticize her.

Bayfield makes arrangements for a small recital, hand-picking people allowed to buy tickets. On the night of the performance, loyal members of the Verdi Club sit respectfully, but others can barely contain their laughter. Feeling encouraged by her recital’s good reviews, she makes a recording of her singing as a Christmas gift for the Verdi Club. Florence gives McMoon a copy of the record, which leads to her recalling that Bayfield was not always a very successful actor and how she hid negative reviews to protect his feelings. She also informs McMoon of her history as a piano player and teacher, having once played for the President as a child. McMoon realizes at this moment that Florence is not as musically inept as he had thought, strengthening their friendship.

Florence and McMoon write and perform original songs together, one of which gets airtime on the radio, much to the shock and horror of Bayfield and Kathleen, despite many listeners finding much enjoyment from her music, believing it to be comedic. With this burst in popularity, Florence informs Bayfield that she has booked Carnegie Hall for a one night performance and will give away a thousand tickets to soldiers. Bayfield tries to talk her out of it, but fails. With Bayfield stressed over the impending performance, which culminates into him getting into a fight with a group of men listening and laughing at Florence and McMoon's song at a bar, Kathleen cannot put up with the lack of attention and leaves him. McMoon confides to Bayfield that he fears that the recital will humiliate him to the point of ruining his career. Bayfield replies that he gave up his acting career to support his wife and urges McMoon to possibly do the same for the sake of his friend. McMoon agrees, elated that he will at least get to play at Carnegie Hall.

The concert is packed and attended by the likes of Cole Porter and Tallulah Bankhead. When Florence begins singing, the soldiers laugh and jeer. Her supporters and loyal friends, however, scold them and then cheer for her to keep singing. She happily continues her performance. Meanwhile, the columnist Earl Wilson for the New York Post refuses to continue listening, telling a desperate Bayfield that he will write a damning review of the recital.

Bayfield, with McMoon's help, goes to great lengths so that she only receives good reviews by buying every copy of the New York Post in the vicinity and throwing them away. After being given sarcastically patronizing comments about her performance alluding to the New York Post's review by a pair of young men, Florence is driven to find a copy of the review in a trash can and is upset to the point of collapse. As she is dying in bed, Bayfield by her side, Florence remembers a fancy angel costume worn for the concert as an angel and imagines herself singing beautiful opera. She imagines that she, McMoon and Bayfield all take a triumphant bow to a standing ovation. She points out proudly that even though people can say she could not sing, no one can say she did not sing. Peacefully, she dies.

Development

Prior to reading the Nicholas Martin penned script, Frears did not have much knowledge about Jenkins beyond the portrayal of her in the West End play Glorious! by Peter Quilter, but on the strength of the script, Frears became interested and did research by watching various Youtube videos of her. Upon watching the videos Frears noted that "You’re laughing and she touches you. It’s inherently ridiculous and courageous at the same time." Likewise both he and Streep were determined that despite the subject matter that the audience side with Florence.

Frears himself did not initially envision Streep in the role, however after her name was brought up Frears agreed, noting that he thought it would be something fresh for her. Streep worked with a singing coach to help her prepare for the role of Jenkins. Frears praised her performance stating "You can only sing badly if you are good singer."

Casting

On 27 March 2015, Simon Helberg was set to play Cosmé McMoon, a pianist and the accompanist to Jenkins. Rebecca Ferguson was added to the cast on 1 April 2015. On 13 April 2015, Nina Arianda joined the film to play Agnes Stark, a showgirl struggling to move up into high society with the help of her husband.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began in May 2015 in London. Pathé released a first-look photo on 22 May, featuring Streep and Grant as Jenkins and Bayfield, respectively. Filming was done in Hoylake and Liverpool city centre.

On 15 June, Grant and Ferguson were spotted filming in a resort in New Brighton, Merseyside. Filming also took place in Liverpool and the city was transformed into 1940s New York City, with Liverpool's Drury Lane being turned into Central Park West, where Streep and Grant were spotted filming in June 2015. Production concluded on 20 July 2015.

Release

In September 2015, Paramount Pictures acquired U.S distribution rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the Belfast Film Festival on April 23, 2016. The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 6 May 2016 and in the United States on 12 August 2016.

Home media

Florence Foster Jenkins was released on Digital HD on November 29, 2016 and on Blu-ray and DVD on December 13, 2016.

Box office

As of 2 October 2016, Florence Foster Jenkins had grossed $27.3 million in North America and $17 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $44.3 million.

In the United States and Canada, Florence Foster Jenkins was released on 12 August 2016, against Pete's Dragon and Sausage Party, and was projected to gross $5–7 million from 1,500 theaters in its opening weekend. It went on to open to $6.6 million, finishing 8th at the box office.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87%, based on 193 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The performances of Streep, Grant, and Helberg received particular praise as well as the screenplay and the warm tone of the film. The site's critical consensus reads, "Florence Foster Jenkins makes poignant, crowd-pleasing dramedy out of its stranger-than-fiction tale – and does its subject justice with a reliably terrific turn from star Meryl Streep." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 71 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Wai Chee Dimock, writing in the Los Angeles Review of Books, linked the film to Hamlet and The Magic Flute, saying that the film "is neither tragedy nor farce, but a passable admixture of the two, defining both negatively."