On- song Streep hits right notes
Florence Foster Jenkins ( Cert PG; 110mins)
IF God loves a trier then He must have adored society heiress Florence Foster Jenkins. This is a woman who screeched when she sang and sounded like an anxious seagull being chased by a predatory cat. Her voice soared to the heavens and plummeted to the basement, often in a single phrase. And pure coincidence explained the moments when her singing wasn’t flat. In short, Florence Foster Jenkins was one of the worst singers ever to grace a public stage.
She was also someone who lived for her music, who studied and practised and loved to perform the most difficult arias from the most challenging operas. She was a passionate enthusiast who never realised how awful she was and that is what helps to transform her from a laughing stock into an endearing and likeable figure.
Earlier this year the film Marguerite fictionalised the Florence Foster Jenkins story and set it in 1920s France. Stephen Frears’ sweetly old- fashioned Florence Foster Jenkins stays closer to the facts and unfolds in a modest vision of 1940s New York almost entirely populated by British actors giving us their best American accents.
Meryl Streep is in fine fettle playing Florence. Padded up and swathed in furs and feathers she is a hoot as the clueless heiress who looks like Margaret Dumont from the Marx Brothers. There are elements of Hyacinth Bucket and the earliest TV appearances of Susan Boyle in her gauche, giddy stage presence.
Hugh Grant is even better as her husband and protector St Clair Bayfield, a failed actor who was set up for life when he married Florence. He protected Florence from ridicule and reality, closely guarded access to her private recitals and rewarded loyal friends and admirers with cash gifts. Let’s not be vulgar and call them bribes.
After an exhausting concert he would tuck Florence up in bed, kiss her goodnight and leave for his own apartment and his mistress Kathleen ( Rebecca Ferguson). “We have an arrangement,” he explains.
Grant plays St Clair as a blithe charmer who could have walked out of a Noël Coward play or a PG Wodehouse lark. He also has the chance to show that St Clair was IN TUNE: Streep and Grant star in Florence Foster Jenkins more than a gold- digger and retained a genuine affection for Florence. It is one of the best roles Grant has played in a long time and reminds us what a jolly good actor he can be given half a chance.
Florence Foster Jenkins is a simple story that gains momentum when Florence decides to hire Carnegie Hall and give a public recital. Simpering, highly strung Cosme McMoon ( Simon Helberg) is hired as her pianist and a date is set for an event that everyone assumes will be a complete disaster.
The mood darkens a little as we learn more of Florence’s tragic past and all the little details that the mockers and scoffers could never appreciate. So this funny and charming film is also unexpectedly touching in the end.
Unlike Florence, director Stephen Frears manages to hit most of the right notes and in the right order.
KNIGHT Of CUPS ( Cert 15; 118mins)
KNIGHT Of Cups may be deep and meaningful to director Terrence Malick but to these eyes it feels like a tedious wallow in one man’s existential crisis.
Hollywood screenwriter Nick ( Christian Bale) has spent “thirty years ruining life for myself and others”. A disappointment to his father Joseph ( Brian Dennehy), Nick appears to be a cross between a prodigal son and a lost soul. He drifts through a shallow, decadent California like a glass- eyed ghost haunting his own wretched life.
Malick first impressed with Badlands more than 40 years ago and his latest film is a now typical fusion of beautiful imagery and woolly reflections on the great mysteries of life and death.
Dialogue is often delivered as little more than a whisper. The roving, restless camera is constantly on the prowl through plush designer homes, shimmering pools, strip clubs and hotel rooms as Nick connects with a variety of women from stripper Karen ( Teresa Palmer) to his ex- wife Nancy ( Cate Blanchett) and the married Elizabeth ( Natalie Portman). The result is a glum, meandering tale that feels like a long day’s journey into Knight.
TRUMAN ( Cert 15; 106mins)
EVER since the success of the Oscar- winning Argentinian thriller The Secret In Their Eyes, actor Ricardo Darín has become a mark of quality in international cinema. He gives another award- winning performance in the Spanish drama Truman, a touching, understated tale of friendship, love and death.
Darín plays Julian, an actor who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Javier Cámara is Tomás, a scientist and loyal friend who left Spain years ago to start a new life in Toronto.
Tomás returns to Madrid and the two men spend time recalling the past, putting affairs in order and, most important of all, seeking a new owner for Julian’s lugubrious, sad- eyed dog Truman.
The film brings out the best in both actors and finds gentle humour and poignancy in a very moving story.
EVOLUTION ( Cert 15; 82mins)
EVOLUTION is a mysterious, creepy little tale pitched somewhere between horror, fantasy and science fiction. It looks stunning and provides plenty to ponder as it unfolds on a remote island that seems to be entirely populated by young boys and their mothers.
Ten- year- old Nicolas ( Max Brebant) catches sight of a dead boy floating in the water with a starfish resting on him. He is comforted and medicated but a subsequent visit to the island’s hospital starts to reveal the origins and intentions of this bizarre community.
Carrying echoes of the fiction of Margaret Atwood, the films of David Cronenberg and the underwater explorations of Jacques Cousteau, Evolution emerges as a provocative coming- of- age drama exploring adolescent fears of puberty, biology and human reproduction.
BAD NEIGHBOURS 2 ( Cert 15; 92mins)
IT is hard to believe that Bad Neighbours was popular enough to merit a sequel but here it is.
It is a re- run of the original material with a gender twist as Mac ( Seth Rogen) and pregnant wife Kelly ( Rose Byrne) find their tranquil neighbourhood ruined by the boozy, scantily- clad members of a raucous sorority house under the spell of Shelby ( Chloë Grace Moretz).
Bad girls are even more bother than bad boys so our hapless couple take desperate measures, persuading former nemesis Teddy ( Zac Efron) to tackle these party animal vermin.
Another crude slapstick effort.
ROBINSON CRUSOE ( Cert PG; 90mins)
IF you are a fan of the Daniel Defoe classic then you might want to avoid Robinson Crusoe. This animated adventure is aimed at youngsters who enjoyed Madagascar rather than readers of classic literature.
When Crusoe ( Yuri Lowenthal) is shipwrecked on a distant island the inhabitants include a menagerie of animals and a parrot that he calls Tuesday ( David Howard).
Bland family fare distinguished only by the energetic use of 3D.