{"id":6013,"date":"2016-08-25T10:01:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T14:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6013"},"modified":"2016-09-23T07:47:47","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T11:47:47","slug":"florence-foster-jenkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6013","title":{"rendered":"Florence Foster Jenkins"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Florence

Simon Helberg, Meryl Streep, & Hugh Grant in Florence Foster Jenkins<\/p><\/div>\n

Based on the true story of socialite, arts patron, and would-be coloratura soprano Florence Foster Jenkins, this Stephen Frears movie (trailer, with a nice feature afterward)<\/a> is a perfect summer entertainment. Even though practically everyone other than her doting, doddering age-peers recognizes how truly awful her singing is and how bizarre are her costumes, the movie nevertheless is persistently upbeat and goodhearted.<\/p>\n

Florence is generous and kind and, while it\u2019s clear she\u2019ll never be the singer she thinks she is, in Meryl Streep\u2019s wonderful characterization, you don\u2019t hold her delusions against her. Streep is supported by Hugh Grant, in a wholly sympathetic portrayal of Florence\u2019s unfailingly supportive husband, St. Clair Bayfield, a handsome actor seven years younger than Florence in real life.<\/p>\n

I fell in love with her pianist, Cosm\u00e9 McMoon, as played by Simon Helberg. McMoon starts his new gig as her accompanist with great enthusiasm and the promise of a much fatter wallet, and when he hears her sing, his growing shock and bewilderment is priceless.<\/p>\n

The only mean-spirited skunk in the whole film is New York Post<\/em> gossip columnist Earl Wilson<\/a>. His headline after Florence\u2019s 1944 Carnegie Hall appearance called her the world\u2019s worst singer. Nice opening credits, great classic cars, love her beads!<\/p>\n

As The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s Peter Bradshaw<\/a> says, \u201cthere are no wrong notes in this film,\u201d and the audience loved her \u201cso-bad-it\u2019s-good\u201d performances, and you will too!<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating 86%; audiences 77%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Based on the true story of socialite, arts patron, and would-be coloratura soprano Florence Foster Jenkins, this Stephen Frears movie (trailer, with a nice feature afterward) is a perfect summer entertainment. Even though practically everyone other than her doting, doddering … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Florence Foster Jenkins - end summer with a warmhearted laugh. Streep, Grant, & Helberg are terrific!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[265,57,207,104],"tags":[591,592,410,91,593,594],"class_list":["post-6013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-movies","category-music","category-the-morgue","tag-florence-foster-jenkins","tag-hugh-grant","tag-meryl-streep","tag-new-york","tag-simon-helberg","tag-stephen-frears"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1yZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6013"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6016,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013\/revisions\/6016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}