That was an excellent one.

People are voting emotionally.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Florence Foster Jenkins stars Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins Hugh Grant as St. Clair Bayfield and Simon Maxwell Helberg as Cosmé McMoon in this biographical comedy drama about the worst singer in the world: Florence Foster Jenkins.The story simple enough, Florence Jenkins and St.Clair Bayfield are a happily married, wealthy couple in 1944 America who enjoy a love of music and all the good things in life. When Florence decides she wants to sing St.Clair agrees and before he knows it she becomes convinced that she can sing well despite reality and pushes her voice further and further into the public eye. The story is well told, if not a little slow at first until the third act where the pacing suddenly speeds up towards the climax and end. The writing is funny enough for the most part but is able to be more grounded should the situation demand it. I can't help but feel that Cosmé McMoon is a little two to one dimensional in the fact that he spends most if not all of his time on screen looking really nervous and upset. I can see what director Stephen Frears and writer Nicholas Martin were going for, it just seems that Simon Helberg is not given mach else asides from looking deeply scared and stuttering his lines. How much of it is the actors fault and how much is in the writing I cannot be really sure but I do suspect that it is the latter.To go into a movie with Meryl Streep expecting a bad performance can easily be seen as a lost cause, she not only captures a woman who is upbeat and hopeful with a love of music and opera but is deluded into thinking that she can sing even though every time she sings a cat dies a gruesome harrowing death off screen. Meryl Streep is able to play the more quirky personality traits Florence but is able to make you feel very sorry for her as well when less pleasant aspects of her life become apparent. The ending its self is really powerful thanks to Meryl Streep acting her way through it. She keeps everyone engaged and I doubt there would have been a better person to play Florence Jenkins. Hugh Grant is also fantastic, being able to shake off the shackles of his Rom Com days and really make St.Clair Bayfield his own, Grant convinced me the love Bayfield has for Florence Jenkins is real. Hugh Grant makes Bayfield feel like a real person and that deserves to be praised. I would not say that the film is particularly funny, that is not to say that there are no laughs in this for there certainly are but I can't help but feel that the film is more of a tragedy. I will not spoil but the film does make me feel really sorry for Florence Jenkins, I am sure the film wants me to feel bad for her but it does not flow with the themes of friendship vs. profit, and following your dreams against all odds. I would recommend purely on the straight of the two leads alone. Not the best in the world but is certainly worth a watch.

Back in 2005, the Broadway play "Souvenir" documented the rehearsals for a concert at Carnagie Hall and the relationship between Ms. Jenkins and her piano player. Jenkins sang like a chicken being boiled alive but thought she sounded like an angel. For Tony winning actress Judy Kaye, she believed that her rendition of "Ave Maria" could induce tears, and after 90 minutes of laughing at the denial of the wealthy New York socialite, I was in tears. Somehow in that period of time, I began to love Florence rather than pity her, because indeed inside, she had heart, and truly sang with the passion of a Metropolitan Opera diva.Now it's Meryl Streep's turn, and the New York atmosphere of 1944 is superbly presented. At a time when dancing sailors took over the city in "On the Town", Barbara Stanwyck plotted to kill her husband, Tallulah Bankhead fished with diamonds in the middle of the Atlantic and Judy Garland sang on a trolley, Jenkins brought opera to society in a way it had never been heard. Hughes Grant plays her younger husband (possibly bigamous) who hides from her how awful she is. As a person, Jenkins is needy, affectionate, slightly snooty and becomes sort of a mother figure to her obviously gay piano player Simon Helberg who comes to appreciate her as he spends private time with her.In a sense, Jenkins became a folk hero of sorts, with music patrons deaf to her off key warbling and wounded soldiers influenced by her music. Grant and Helberg are both outstanding, and once again, Streep immerses herself in the part, sort of a singing Julia Child. This shows the real Jenkins at her best and worst, bald as a billiard ball and complaining about syphilis scars she got on the night of her first marriage. If untalented as untalented can be, she at least tried to go for her dreams, and if in denial of her talent at least had the soul to sing from. That in itself makes this movie worth while, coming in an era when dreams die faster than the latest fad and cynicism destroys the will to fully devote to one's goals.

In my youth, the name Florence Foster Jenkins was always a source of laughter as belonging to the world's worse soprano who had an inability to sing on pitch. (A case in point was her infamous attempt at singing the famous Queen of the Night aria, ("Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen") I have not seen the other recent film "Marguerite" (2015) which was very loosely based on her career but this film is closer to her real life. For example, it turns out she was suffering from syphilis caught from her husband Dr. Frank Jenkins early on. So she was perhaps not completely in her right mind afterward.But she made the best of her life as she saw it.Meryl Streep plays Florence with her usual skill in another Oscar-worthy performance, Hugh Grant plays her "sort-of-husband" and manager St. Clair Bayfield (they avoided any conjugal relations by mutual agreement and he had his own real marriage.) and is a fine match for Streep.However, the big surprise is Simon Helberg (Wolowitz on The Big Bang theory) who plays the sorely-tried accompanist to Madame Jenkins, Cosmé McMoon,"McMunn" originally, but that is not mentioned in this film.Although Helberg doesn't avoid McMoon's effeminate gestures, he doesn't overdo them either. (How about best-supporting actor?) Well-done all around!

I don't think that there is anyone even among this film's biggest fans out there who think this is an accurate portrayal of the life of the eccentric Florence Foster Jenkins, patron of the arts who decided she belonged in them rather than fund them. Still this outrageous character is interpreted broadly and loudly by Meryl Streep and there's a lot of laughs between the pathos.Growing up I remember there was a kid who loved baseball and was determined to be a ballplayer. The fact that he was more unathletic than I never fazed him a bit. Fortunately he was not rich either or he would have bought a team and put himself in the lineup. Reality did overtake him in his teens and he opted for another career.There is also a classic Criminal Intent episode where rich dowager Claire Bloom who was briefly a child actress decides to finance a performance the way Ms. Jenkins does at Carnegie Hall. She killed to help get that career something Ms. Jenkins never did. Unless it was the work of several composers.One thing that was true in the film was that Jenkins did have syphilis acquired from a husband whom she kicked out. We're not sure that Hugh Grant's character ever was actually married to Jenkins. Still also accurate was that he was devoted to her and the lifestyle she provided for him.Finally this biographical film is proof positive that a few bucks in the bank are truly the only difference between the eccentric and the crazy. I assure you I would have permanent residence at Happydale Acres if I took it upon myself to have a singing career. Edward Everett Horton would have a suite ready for me.Broad, bold, and outrageous was Florence Foster Jenkins and that's how Meryl Streep plays her. It's the kind of role you can really let go and have a ball. Hugh Grant whom as he gets older is starting to resemble Cary Grant is perfect as her male companion/husband. Also pay note to Simon Helberg as her pianist accompanist who sort of joins the loony tunes express after a bit of persuasion. Meryl Streep got the latest in Oscar nominations for Best Actress and the film also was nominated for Costume Design. An outrageous movie about an outrageous character.