Florence Foster Jenkins

In the 1940s—a kinder, gentler era—a generous and good-hearted (if also delusional) diva packed Manhattan's Carnegie Hall, where people cheered as she enthusiastically sang off-key. The real socialite heiress Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944) believed she was a gifted opera singer (the coloratura soprano she heard in her head was sublime). Employing Metropolitan Opera conductor Carlo Edwards (David Haig) as her vocal coach, Jenkins (Meryl Streep) endowed New York's Verdi Club, where adoring audiences encouraged her screeching. If she could not truly achieve acclaim, she could certainly buy it, with the help of her dedicated husband/manager St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) and loyal, long-suffering accompanist Cosmé McMoon (Simon Helberg). “Music matters: it is my life,” declares Jenkins, who contracted syphilis from her first husband, necessitating celibacy in her subsequent marriage to Bayfield, a failed Shakespearean actor. In 1944, however, when Madame Florence gave a public concert, distributing 1,000 tickets to U.S. servicemen, Bayfield realized that her illusions would inevitably be shattered. Bedecked with pearls, feathers, and gossamer angel wings, Streep is transcendent, eliciting empathy while embodying the often-imperious yet emotionally fragile Florence. Director Stephen Frears evokes a tragicomic sentimentality, celebrating the indulgence of eccentricity and the pursuit of dreams. A fine Hollywood companion to French filmmaker Xavier Giannoli's fictional version of the story, Marguerite (VL-7/16), this is recommended. [Note: Blu-ray extras include a Q&A with star Meryl Streep (16 min.), the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Live at Carnegie Hall” (10 min.) and “Ours is a Happy World” (5 min.), deleted scenes (6 min.), production segments on “The Music and Songs of Florence” (4 min.), “Designing the Look” (4 min.), and “From Script to Screen” (4 min.), a brief look at the world premiere (2 min.), trailers, and bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an engaging, offbeat bio-pic.] (S. Granger)