serenacroteau
I laughed until the end! The storyline was very well put together and it was an unexpected ending. I loved the controversy between certain characters who's flaws clashed, making the story move along.
mark.waltz
Back in 2005, the Broadway play "Souvenir" documented the rehearsals for a concert at Carnagie Hall and the relationship between Ms. Jenkins and her piano player. Jenkins sang like a chicken being boiled alive but thought she sounded like an angel. For Tony winning actress Judy Kaye, she believed that her rendition of "Ave Maria" could induce tears, and after 90 minutes of laughing at the denial of the wealthy New York socialite, I was in tears. Somehow in that period of time, I began to love Florence rather than pity her, because indeed inside, she had heart, and truly sang with the passion of a Metropolitan Opera diva.Now it's Meryl Streep's turn, and the New York atmosphere of 1944 is superbly presented. At a time when dancing sailors took over the city in "On the Town", Barbara Stanwyck plotted to kill her husband, Tallulah Bankhead fished with diamonds in the middle of the Atlantic and Judy Garland sang on a trolley, Jenkins brought opera to society in a way it had never been heard. Hughes Grant plays her younger husband (possibly bigamous) who hides from her how awful she is. As a person, Jenkins is needy, affectionate, slightly snooty and becomes sort of a mother figure to her obviously gay piano player Simon Helberg who comes to appreciate her as he spends private time with her.In a sense, Jenkins became a folk hero of sorts, with music patrons deaf to her off key warbling and wounded soldiers influenced by her music. Grant and Helberg are both outstanding, and once again, Streep immerses herself in the part, sort of a singing Julia Child. This shows the real Jenkins at her best and worst, bald as a billiard ball and complaining about syphilis scars she got on the night of her first marriage. If untalented as untalented can be, she at least tried to go for her dreams, and if in denial of her talent at least had the soul to sing from. That in itself makes this movie worth while, coming in an era when dreams die faster than the latest fad and cynicism destroys the will to fully devote to one's goals.
tlarraya
This movie is not worth seeing. There is no story worth telling. You expect some twist by the end but nothing really happens. It's good to see the acting of Simon Helberg out of the TV Show "The Big Bang Theory" but that's pretty much it. Nothing else to see. Skip it and do yourself a favor.
