You know that feeling when you're watching a train wreck but you can't look away? That’s basically the pitch for Florence Foster Jenkins the movie. But it's also not. Honestly, if you went into this 2016 flick expecting a mean-spirited roast of a delusional rich lady, you probably came out feeling kinda... well, different.
Meryl Streep plays Florence, a New York socialite with a voice like a "dying bird," as some critics put it back in the day. She’s wealthy. She’s obsessed with opera. And she is spectacularly, almost mathematically, bad at singing. Yet, she sold out Carnegie Hall in 1944.
The Truth Behind the "Bad" Singing
People often ask if Meryl Streep was actually singing that poorly. Yes. She was. But here's the kicker: it’s actually harder for a trained singer like Streep to sing off-key on purpose than it is to just sing well.
Streep had to learn the actual arias—Mozart’s "Queen of the Night," for instance—and then meticulously "break" them. It’s a technical nightmare. You have to hit the wrong note with the right amount of confidence. If you're off by too much, it sounds like a parody. If you're too close, it just sounds like a bad day. She nailed that "middle-of-the-road" awful.
The Real Florence
The movie stays surprisingly close to the facts. Florence wasn't just a lady with a hobby; she was a major patron of the arts in Manhattan. She founded the Verdi Club. She supported Toscanini.
- The Syphilis Factor: This is the part people miss. Florence contracted syphilis from her first husband, Frank Jenkins, when she was just 18.
- The Treatment: Back then, they used mercury and arsenic.
- The Fallout: It’s widely believed the disease (or the "cure") caused her hair loss and potentially damaged her hearing or central nervous system.
When you realize she lived in constant pain and wore wigs because of a disease she caught as a teenager, the "delusion" feels a lot more like a survival tactic.
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Hugh Grant and the "Understanding"
Let’s talk about St. Clair Bayfield. Hugh Grant plays him with this weary, aristocratic charm that’s honestly some of his best work. In Florence Foster Jenkins the movie, Bayfield is her manager and "husband" (they never actually married), but he lives in a separate apartment with his mistress, Kathleen.
Is he a gold-digger?
It’s complicated. The movie portrays a weirdly beautiful "understanding." He protects her from the critics by literally bribing people and buying up every copy of the New York Post so she won't see the bad reviews. He’s a failed actor who found a role he could actually play: the devoted husband of a star.
Simon Helberg: The Secret MVP
If you only know Simon Helberg from The Big Bang Theory, his performance as Cosmé McMoon will floor you. He’s the pianist hired to accompany Florence.
The scene where he first hears her sing? That’s pure cinema. His face goes through about seventeen stages of grief in thirty seconds.
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Fun fact: Helberg is actually a brilliant pianist in real life. All the piano playing you see in the film is him. No hand doubles. No CGI fingers. Just a guy trying to keep a straight face while Meryl Streep screeches in his ear.
Why the Carnegie Hall Scene Matters
The climax of the film is the legendary Carnegie Hall concert. October 25, 1944. Florence gave away a thousand tickets to soldiers.
In the movie, the audience starts laughing, and it’s heartbreaking. In real life, it was a riot. People were literally passing out from laughing so hard. They were stuffing handkerchiefs in their mouths to stay quiet.
But Florence? She thought they were cheering. Or maybe she didn't. There's a theory that she knew exactly what was happening and just didn't care because she was doing what she loved. The movie leans into the idea that she lived in a bubble of her own making, supported by people who truly cared about her happiness more than her pitch.
Was it a Tragedy or a Comedy?
Most biopics try to be one thing. Director Stephen Frears (who did The Queen) decided to make it both.
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It’s funny because, well, the sounds she makes are objectively hilarious. But it’s a tragedy because she’s a dying woman spending her final days chasing a dream she was never physically capable of catching.
She died just a month after the Carnegie Hall performance. Some say the reviews killed her. Others say her heart just gave out after the adrenaline of the big stage finally wore off.
Why You Should Re-watch It
If you haven't seen it since 2016, look at it through the lens of "amateurism." The word amateur comes from the Latin amator, meaning "lover." Florence was the ultimate amateur. She did it for the love of the art, not the skill. In an era where everyone is obsessed with being "the best" or "viral," there's something weirdly punk rock about a woman who was the absolute worst and did it anyway.
What to Do Next
If you want to go deeper into the rabbit hole of Florence's "unique" talent:
- Listen to the Original Recordings: Search for the real Florence Foster Jenkins on YouTube or Spotify. Compare her "Der Hölle Rache" to Meryl's version. It’s hauntingly similar.
- Watch "Marguerite": This is a 2015 French film inspired by the same story. It’s much darker and explores the more cynical side of the socialite world.
- Check the Archives: The Carnegie Hall website actually has a digital archive of the original program and photos from that night in 1944. It’s worth a look to see the real-world scale of the event.
- Read the Script: If you're into writing, Nicholas Martin’s screenplay is a masterclass in balancing tone. You can find copies online that show how they paced the humor vs. the pathos.
Florence once said, "People may say I couldn't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing." Honestly? That’s a pretty great way to go out.