"Meryl does a terrific job at making Florence a fleshed-out person rather than a caricature"

We all know that Meryl Streep can sing thanks to her musical turns in movies such as Mamma Mia! and Into the Woods, but in Florence Foster Jenkins she has to sing like Florence, an opera singer with no concept of rhythm, pitch, tone, who consistently performs flatly and has terrible vocal pronunciation.

However, Florence, a real-life wealthy socialite, is under the illusion she has an amazing voice as her manager and husband, actor St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), surrounds her with people who don’t tell her the truth. From vocal coaches and those who attend her invitation-only concerts, which professional music critics are banned from, no one is straight with her.

We see Florence’s world through the eyes of her new pianist Cosme McMoon (The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg), who discovers her (lack of) singing ability along with the audience. You’ll end up sniggering quietly along with him before letting go and bursting out laughing. The singing is awful – it’s impressive Meryl can make her voice so bad. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, she picks a difficult piece and goes for the glass-shattering high notes.

It is funny for a while but it soon becomes sad when you discover Florence is actually ill. You feel bad for laughing at her expense and wish someone would just tell her the truth, but you know her dreams would be ruined. Still, it would be nicer if somebody let her down gently before she puts on a show for the general public at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall. Those scenes are tough to watch and you can understand why nobody chose to enlighten her before.

Meryl does a terrific job at making Florence a fleshed-out person rather than a caricature and laughing stock, yet I still don’t feel like there’s a great deal of depth to the character. I wanted to know more about her illness, marriage and upbringing.

Hugh is fine – he does a perfectly good job as his usual posh British type but does very little beyond that. I had St. Clair pegged as a gold-digger but it appears he does love her. This is complicated by his relationship with Kathleen (Rebecca Ferguson), who accepts their situation but doesn’t like it, and her portrayal of the other woman is touching and poignant. Helberg is just adorable and charming as the nerdy pianist, who stands by Florence’s side out of loyalty despite the risk of ruining his musical reputation.

The problem is it goes on far too long and I was ready for the end about 15-20 minutes before it does. I also feel that I was at a distance from the events of the film, rather than being emotionally involved. But generally it’s a bittersweet comedy-drama that’s nice but forgettable.