Don't Cry for Florence Foster Jenkins, my take on the latest Meryl Streep Movie



Spoiler Alert: This blog is about the movie Florence Foster Jenkins with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant among others.

Short Review, overall I thought the movie was very good great.  What you expect from Meryl Streep as she inhabits Florence's bad singing and mannerisms.  You start laughing at the beginning of the movie at her, and continue throughout.  I also think Hugh Grant was quite good, even surprisingly so, as he plays her husband and does so in a soft and amusing way.

For those that don't know, Florence Foster Jenkins really existed.  She was a patron of the music scene in New York, and believed that she could sing very well.  Apparently, she couldn't, but in the days of a printed press that took time to get out in the world her husband and the community around her kept her believing she could sing.  This continues for quite a while until she performs at Carnegie Hall, and the crowd laughed, and finally a reviewer from the NY Post refuses to support ruse and she reads a truly horrid review of her singing, puts her in failing health because of stress, and she passes away.

So, yes this all interesting, and as I left the theater I engaged in a conversation about how sad her life was.  She spent all this time and energy into a passion that she was not good at.  I don't find her life sad.  There were issues with her first husband, that impacted her health, that you can be sad about.  But, when you consider that she spent her life on a passion and a true belief in her own excellence in singing that was validated by everyone around her, I don't consider her life a sad one.  We may consider if she knew the truth she may have put her considerable energy to another discipline that she was good at, possibly bringing a greater benefit to society, but otherwise her life was the life she dreamed of and wanted.

That said, what was sad in the movie, was all the people around her who took money to continue the ruse for only their own gain.  The press that was bought off, and printed false review were not true journalists.  The voice coach from the Met Opera that continued to praise her while taking money for training her when he knew she was not good.  The women's guild who accepted her hospitality and generosity, also supported the ruse when again they knew she could not sing.  These people were sad to me, and were living a false life of their creation.

Florence Foster Jenkins, was living a true life and she had real validation of it!  It is those around her who did not, benefited from not being true to her, and lived a quality of life possibly above what they personally earned in their life.  Seems to me, the movie solely focusing on the humor and farce of her singing was remiss in not sharing more about her broader life, philanthropy, and apparent desire to help others in the world.

In a day and age, where we exaggerate our careers on LinkedIn.  We take careful pictures of holidays to post on Facebook, and share our own desired image of ourselves online or in person we really should not look down on someone, who as characterized in the movie, lived what was for a her a truly honest life with passion.



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