Florence Foster Jenkins

— This is certainly a crowd-pleaser! Florence Foster Jenkins' love of music considerably outshines her ability but she’s never really aware of her shortcomings thanks to sympathetic friends and a husband who protects her using every trick possible. Meryl Streep is always incredible and she offers the perfect mix of emotions throughout the film, to say nothing of having an amazing ability to sing off key. Her considerable talents have been well documented over the years but it is Hugh Grant’s ability to mostly hold his own that comes as a bit of a surprise since he normally churns out the same, glib and funny, endearing, rakish performance, making it look easy after so many iterations. This time, there's more depth to things and, while he’s still charming, there’s a softness to his love of Florence that really makes the role special. I liked this film quite a bit since it succeeds at being both funny and touching, has a great cast, and the hand of a competent director. Some people in the audience applauded when it ended, so others liked it as well. (I also liked the 2015 French film, “Marguerite”, based on the same story but with less plot than this film. I think it’s worth seeing both films if you can since they are both concerned with the lines between encouragement and manipulation, when politeness becomes patronization, whether art is in the eyes of the artist or the audience, and the power of art and love. )

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[2016. 110 min. Directed by Stephen Frears. Starring Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, and Rebecca Ferguson.]
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/apr/13/florence-foster-jenkins-review-meryl-streep-hugh-grant-stephen-frears