"Florence Foster Jenkins" is quite an amazing film. It's funny, Meryl Streep's singing or miming of someone else's performance, is spot on, and the cast is truly wonderful. Hugh Grant is really astonishing, and Simon Helberg of "The Big Bang" really boggled my mind as this quietly gay, mousey southern gentleman who goes fighting all the way to Carnegie Hall. The three actors get all the laughs and never push the sadness behind the comedy. It's quite often heartbreaking, and the ending is a killer.
Nina Arianda, whom I'd never seen before in anything. plays the proverbial dumb blonde with the hig heart, and there are wonderful cameos by a whole crew of amazing actors. I suspect they are mainly British, ;ole John Sessions and Maggie Steed, but the impersonations of Carl Edwards of the Met and Arturo Toscanini are quite wonderful. The design is really fine and the choreography of Hugh Grant's dance with Nina Arianda really jives.
