Florence Foster Jenkins

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Stephen Frears/Starring: Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Simon Helberg, Rebecca Ferguson, Allan Corduner, Christian McKay, and David Haig

Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944), socialite and patron to the New York music scene, occupies a very peculiar place in American music history. A one-time pianist, Jenkins' inherited wealth allowed her to extend a philanthropic hand to musicians; including world-renowned conductor Arturo Toscanini. But she is known mostly for her concerts, which she performed without any ability to sing or carry a tune. Jenkins was so comically inept as a singer as to produce guffaws in listeners. Jenkins' dream of performing in her own concerts in her later years is the focus of director Stephen Frears' comedy/drama Florence Foster Jenkins; a funny film replete with a subtle, tragic edge. Frears' film follows on the heels of Xavier Giannoli's Marguerite; another 2016 release based on Jenkins' life. While Giannoli's film opts for a darker narrative, Frears' film allows the inherent humor of Jenkins' musical endeavors to find expression without succumbing to farce.

Set in New York in early 1944, the film opens in a small, theatrical setting where a gathering of socialites who call themselves The Verdi Club enjoy a musical play hosted by Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) and her husband St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant). It's clear from the scene how key a role music plays in Jenkins' life and how her wealth makes musical opportunities for others and herself possible.

At home among her posh surroundings, St. Clair's devotion to Florence is very conspicuous as he tends to her frail health. A startling moment when she removes her wig to expose her smooth, bald head reveals the seriousness of her illness whose cause is later made known to the audience.

Inspired by her ardor for music, Florence becomes infatuated with the idea of furthering her singing lessons; a pursuit her loving and accommodating husband supports. Needing a pianist to accompany her lessons, Florence and St. Clair arrange auditions with local musicians. In one of the more amusing moments in the film, we see the audition itself, which begins with a loud, over-zealous pianist whose cacophonous playing leaves Florence and St. Clair visibly pained. Following after is Cosme McMoon (Simon Helberg; whose comedic performance almost hijacks the movie); whose ingratiating version of Saint Saens' The Swan delights Florence while leaving the other pianists outside the door angry and bewildered. Their reaction will most likely elicit a solid chuckle from the audience.

Having selected Cosme, Florence's voice lessons begin in earnest. Her teacher, Carlo Edwards (David Haig) coaxes the first sounds from Florence, which are laughably off-key and almost ear-splitting. The reaction on Cosme's face when he first hears her voice is worth the price of admission alone. The scene becomes surreally funny as Carlo resorts to vigorous, physical contact in an attempt to draw musical sounds from her voice. While Carlo's praise for Florence's awful singing is puzzling, Cosme can barely contain his dismay. When Florence asks Carlo if she is ready for a recital, he offers his enthusiastic assent. Later, following the lesson, Carlo's real estimation of Florence's voice is expressed during his conversation with St. Clair in the lobby of the apartment building. When St. Clair asks Carlo whether he will attend the recital, Carlo mentions an engagement in Florida. But when St. Clair asks when his Florida trip might be, Carlo asks him when the recital might take place. That exchange is one of the funniest I've seen in movie this year.

St. Clair's efforts to protect Florence's feelings also leaves him defensive when he hears her voice being slighted. St. Clair takes mild offense to Carlo's reaction and is skeptical of Cosme's awkwardly-expressed comment about Florence's voice being "flat."

As Florence prepares for her first recital, St. Clair's feverish attempts to fill seats with sympathetic patrons proves exhausting and trying, while Cosme expresses his fears and doubts about his ability to accompany his patron onstage.

What gives Frear's film depth are the character's fascinating backstories, which sometimes provide clues to their motivations. We learn that St. Clair was once an aspiring actor on the stage who never achieved greatness. Florence mentions at one point how she protected him from scathing reviews--an ironic comment, considering St. Clair goes out of his way to shield his wife from equally scathing reviews of her singing.

Though we marvel at St. Clair's devotion to his wife, the sobering reality of their relationship becomes evident when we see him depart from the apartment late nights after he lulls Florence to sleep with his Shakespearean recitations. We see St. Clair visiting his girlfriend; Kathleen (Rebecca Ferguson) at an apartment he keeps. At this point in the film, we don't know if St. Clair's nightly visits are mere philandering or if they serve another purpose. In time we learn that St. Clair is Florence's second husband; her first marriage having proved pernicious in more ways than one. It becomes known to the audience that her debilitating illness is a result of her first marriage, which leaves Florence and St. Clair unable to enjoy or consummate conjugal relations.

St. Clair's desperate attempt to shield Florence from negative criticism is dramatized in a scene following her recital, where he buys all the copies of the New York Post. The paper features a damning review of her concert, written by St. Clair's nemesis; Earl Wilson (Christian McKay). We see the lengths St. Clair goes to protect Florence in a scene shortly thereafter, when he and Cosme negotiate the purchase of a copy of the Post from an angry cafe patron while she sits among her friends nearby, unaware of what is taking place.

The film builds to Florence's climactic performance at Carnegie Hall; an idea she first proposes to St. Clair after sitting in the illustrious venue. St. Clair tries to discourage her, citing her failing health but his reservations are overcome by his love for Florence and his indefatigable quest to secure her happiness. Fearing the ridicule that might come from a Carnegie Hall performance, Cosme nearly abandons Florence until St. Clair convinces him otherwise. The concert itself, a tense sequence, is full of surprises and terrific moments.

In less talented hands, Florence Foster Jenkins might have been a sentimental farce but Frears, never one for maudlin narratives, ensures the comedy has a dark flip-side. Underneath the comic travesty of Jenkins' singing is a tragedy Frears courts but doesn't asphyxiate the audience with.

Though Frears is a reliable talent behind the camera, the film's power is generated by some stellar performances. Anyone who has read my blog in the past is familiar with my distaste for Meryl Streep but I have to say she acquitted herself well as Jenkins; making a potentially pathetic person sympathetic and quite human. But the film's real treasures are Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg; who are very funny; showing their comedic flare in many scenes but they manage to tease out their respective character's sadder natures.

The film offers no clues as to how and why Jenkins believed her singing to be stage-worthy but what is axiomatic was her love for music, which St. Clair explains to Florence's doctor as the key to her longevity. Frears' film never mocks Jenkins but shows her admirable qualities; her resilience and blithe indifference to the more tragic aspects of her life.

Florence Foster Jenkins is an enjoyable film and one that seems even better in retrospect. Its main character isn't a buffoon but someone with darker corners than one might expect. The film also proves there is more to the facts we read in the end titles or that can be heard on her record, which has become quite popular with music lovers. Jenkins certainly was an oddity but one worth discovering in a two-hour film.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Christopher McQuarrie/Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Simon McBurney, Alec Baldwin and Tom Hollander

One might expect a movie franchise like Mission Impossible to be staggering about and sputtering after its many iterations over a twenty-year span. Every installment has taken its sweet time making its way to the silver screen. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is only the fifth incarnation in what's become a very durable and very dependable action series. Like The Fast and the Furious films, which simply refuse to become dull and formulaic, Mission Impossible has remained a thrilling heart-thumper and shows no signs of slowing down (or coming to any foreseeable end). Director Christopher McQuarrie, the helmsman of the very unfortunate Jack Reacher, redeems himself with this latest MI film, which is aided considerably by a tight script and of course, the considerable charms of the IMF, or the Impossible Missions Force, as it is commonly known in the films.

Tom Cruise reprises his role as IMF's super operative Ethan Hunt, who, when the story begins, is knee-deep in a mission. As a cargo plane loaded with chemical weapons makes its way down a runway, Hunt manages to run onto the wing before hanging from the side door. IMF's computer whiz, Benji Dunn (the highly entertaining Simon Pegg) tries desperately to hack the plane's computer to open the side door before Hunt is undone by altitude and ferocious wind-currents. That the sequence was accomplished without CGI and a stunt double is truly amazing. Whether one feels Tom Cruise has taken leave of his senses for attempting a dangerous stunt for the sake of authenticity or dedicated professionalism, the fact remains; the scene is truly spectacular.

Meanwhile, the CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin), appeals vigorously to a government committee for the IMF's dismantling; believing the covert group has gone rogue. The IMF's subsequent outlaw status makes Hunt a fugitive, which prompts a CIA, seize and capture operation. While Hunt is on the run, his key colleagues in the IMF; Dunn and William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) lay low as CIA employees; providing their colleague valuable intelligence. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), the other member of Hunt's group is virtually incommunicado; keeping his whereabouts secret.

While the CIA searches for Hunt, he is captured by a shadowy organization known as The Syndicate; a network of spies responsible for terrorist acts worldwide. Their leader, Solomon Lane (a delightfully sinister Sean Harris), is a former British intelligence operative who believes his organization can right the wrongs of the world by overturning the status quo. The Syndicate has few qualms about killing and doing so en masse to satisfy their amoral agenda.

Lane's thugs manage to capture Hunt, who is well aware of the Syndicate's destructive aims. While Hunt is tied up in a cell, a Syndicate butcher known as Janik Vinter (Jens Hulten) administers a beating before unveiling his array of tools meant to inflict painful and potentially lethal wounds. Before Vinter can begin, a woman working with The Syndicate helps Hunt to free himself before they escape together. Before he can learn her identity, she runs off while Hunt dodges bullets en route to his own freedom.

In time, with the help of Dunn, who plays video games at his desk in a London CIA field office when his supervisor isn't around, Hunt learns about a Syndicate operation targeting the Austrian Chancellor.

An exciting cat and mouse sequence in the Vienna Opera House finds Hunt and Dunn trying to find Syndicate operatives who are planning an assassination of the Austrian Chancellor. Hunt uncovers a tangle of would-be snipers. Among them is the woman who helped Hunt escape. Though she helped Hunt before, her actions always seem to be at cross-purposes with the IMF team. When the attempt on the Chancellor succeeds, Hunt and Dunn are aware that their presence will only incriminate them, which necessitates a hasty escape abetted by none other than the mysterious woman. Hunt learns she was actually trying to save the Chancellor and when questioned further, he learns she is Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) a erstwhile member of MI6, who has joined The Syndicate in order to stop Lane.

Hunt, Dunn and Faust learn Lane is interested in obtaining encrypted information held in a digital vault in Morocco, inside a maximum security complex. Hunt and company discover the information they need is securely stored inside a water tank, which is accessible only by a dangerous dive and a formidable swim, which involves holding one's breath under water for several minutes. The sensitive and highly sophisticated alarm systems, which are triggered by the presence of metal, disqualify the use of oxygen tanks, which would compromise the mission. The break-in comes with its own perils, which hardly end with Hunt's harrowing dive into the water tank and his near drowning but with a hair-raising motorcycle chase through Moroccan hills.

Not long after, when Brandt and Stickell join Hunt and Dunn, the group learns the information they've stolen can only be accessed by the British Prime-Minister's retinal-scan, palm print and voice-recognition, which presents one more "impossible" mission they must accomplish. The contents of the stolen disc are of vital importance to The Syndicate but also to Hunt and the IMF. The data on the disc would prove the existence of the Syndicate, which Hunley and the CIA dismiss as a fiction crafted by Hunt.

Showdowns are inevitable and though we don't doubt the various outcomes, it is deliriously entertaining to watch the plot unfold.

One of the wonders of MI: Rogue Nation is Tom Cruise. How a 53-year-old man can manage the stunts and run about if he were still in his mid-thirties is mind-blowing but he does it all with dazzle. Rebecca Ferguson holds her own, engaging in intricately choreographed fight scenes without sacrificing her onscreen sex appeal.
Sean Harris makes an excellent, spy-movie villain. His whispery, raspy voice is a nice touch and his fashion sense is classic movie-bad guy couture; very impeccable and highly stylish.

I think the addition of Simon Pegg to the MI films has proven to be one of the best casting moves in the series. Pegg's natural, comedic flair compliments Cruise's tough-guy, onscreen persona. His levity also keeps the film from becoming mired in earnestness and self-seriousness.
McQuarrie demonstrates he can direct an action film; keeping its pace kinetic and action white-hot. Jack Reacher left much for he and Cruise to atone for.

I thought this might be the last Mission Impossible installment but the film and the filmmakers seemed to have avoided any conspicuous closure, which means we may see more in the future. Or will we? I guess that all depends on whether Cruise can meet the physical demands. But based on his physique, which looks as toned and muscled as everybody else's in the movie, he may be playing Ethan Hunt well into his 80s'.

MI: Rogue Nation is a treat. In a year where Liam Neeson's tough guys have put audiences to sleep and other actors have joined the CIA-trained-bad-ass bandwagon, Cruise's Ethan Hunt outclasses the amateurs by kicking tail convincingly. His character belongs on the super-spy Mt. Olympus, with Jason Bourne and 007.

At last, we have a summer thriller that actually features thrills, rather than just incoherent mayhem. I guess we'll have to wait and see if we see more of the IMF. More wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Or at least another round.