Florence Foster Jenkins
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: August 12, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
34
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 12, 2016
Florence Foster Jenkins isn’t really about how passion trumps art. It’s about how life is more important than art. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaAug 12, 2016
In this charming and delightful biopic that bears her name, the matronly Jenkins is an endearing and courageous stand-in for countless other mortals whose aspirations in the arts often far exceed their talents. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniAug 11, 2016
Directed with tremendous style and vibrant, buoyant energy. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickAug 11, 2016
Hugh Grant is no less great (and has terrific chemistry with Streep) in his juiciest role in years as St. Clair. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesBill ZweckerAug 11, 2016
This is an intelligent, deeply moving film that is about so much more than a rich lady with delusional dreams about her own musical abilities. It is, in fact, quite an uplifting homage to the spirit of confidence in the face of enormous adversity. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonAug 11, 2016
It’s not necessary to be a classical-music buff to be charmed by this thoroughly entertaining film that never hits a false note. Read full review
85
TheWrapJason SolomonsApr 13, 2016
This is a fine, funny and moving film tribute to the efforts and passions of its titular heroine, a woman who lived out her dreams, at any price. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 11, 2016
It would be easy to mine Jenkins’ story for silly farce and 1940s set pieces and let it coast from there, but director Stephen Frears (Philomena, The Queen) is too kind, and too nuanced, to do that. Even when she’s murdering a high C, his Florence finds the melody. Read full review
80
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerAug 11, 2016
Ms. Streep is a delight, hilarious when she’s singing and convincingly on edge at all times. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensAug 9, 2016
Streep, who has long enjoyed playing women endowed with more than the average supply of gusto, makes the character’s delusional faith in her own talent so infectious that we ache at the thought of Florence’s impending humiliation even as we prepare ourselves to laugh at it. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamMay 4, 2016
With Streep on grandstanding form and Grant given a rare chance to show his range, this is an intelligent dramedy that moves and amuses. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeMay 3, 2016
Director Stephen Frears sketches out her tragic backstory, and Streep in grande dame mode is not to be missed. Read full review
80
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganApr 13, 2016
Bouquets all round: Stephen Frears goes broad in Florence Foster Jenkins, and the appeal should be wide. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAug 10, 2016
For the incomparable Streep, it’s yet another performance in high C. Read full review
75
ObserverOliver JonesAug 16, 2016
While the film plays lip service (perhaps one too many times) to the healing power of music, it is really about how self-deception fuels and sustains. It may not keep us alive, but it will keep us going while we here. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerAug 11, 2016
As fine as Streep is, however, it’s Grant’s movie. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 11, 2016
So, you're probably asking, what kind of a movie is this? A damn fine and funny one, thanks to the way the estimable director Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, The Queen) conducts the piece. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldAug 11, 2016
The film belongs to Streep, who makes Florence a sweetly feathery dreamer — singing like an angel, in a voice that only she can hear. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleAug 11, 2016
A one-joke movie, but it’s a pretty good joke, and the fact that it’s based on a true story only makes the gag more delicious. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 11, 2016
Florence Foster Jenkins brims with love for its characters and forbearance for even their most blinkered self-deception. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanAug 10, 2016
If you don’t confuse this with history – or with the French film “Marguerite,” a fictional piece loosely based on FFJ – you’ll come away touched. That’s mostly because of Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 10, 2016
Florence Foster Jenkins is too much old-fashioned fun to saddle with ideas. Just sit back and let Meryl screech. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 10, 2016
It’s mildly amusing when it should be funny, sentimental when it should be deep and all too easy when it should be unsettling. It’s still some kind of success, but a modest one. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 10, 2016
Florence is hilarious, and sadly fragile, and Streep makes her pain both funny and poignant. Read full review
70
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyAug 25, 2016
At its heart, Florence Foster Jenkins is about a woman at her most unabashedly genuine, and there’s something admirable about that. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 15, 2016
The result is at once a work of efficient charm and, to those of us who treasured Frears in his more acerbic phase, a mild disappointment. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 12, 2016
It’s a wobbly, uneven, ultimately wonderful film — its unevenness befitting its title character, who we come to love despite her loopy lack of awareness of her own deficiencies. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 11, 2016
It’s another showcase for Streep — nothing new on that front, but still enjoyable. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Aug 9, 2016
It's a pleasure seeing Grant in a great part again, playing the sort of almost-cad he's best at. And Streep - who, in real life, can belt anything from Broadway to Bruce - is clearly having a ball singing badly. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeApr 13, 2016
Florence Foster Jenkins is an audience picture first and foremost: one wholly sympathetic to its eponymous subject’s delusional drive to delight crowds with or without the requisite artistry. Read full review
67
IndieWireKate ErblandAug 11, 2016
That’s where the film truly succeeds: Frears doesn’t treat Florence like a joke, and neither does Streep. Read full review
67
The PlaylistWill AshtonAug 11, 2016
With its sensational production designs, lavish costumes and Grant providing one of his best performances in years (if not one of his best performances ever), Florence Foster Jenkins is appealing if ultimately slight. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeAug 11, 2016
Hugh Grant’s face is perpetually locked in a concerned grimace as Bayfield, whose mind always seems to be elsewhere when he’s not doting on his wife. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 11, 2016
[A] stagy, troubling, bizarrely entertaining movie. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 11, 2016
The movie is a pleaser, for the most part, even though the attitude it takes toward its subject is often problematic. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna SmithApr 18, 2016
A fizzy, funny, period dramedy with top-notch performances, Florence Foster Jenkins doesn't take many risks but it's a very entertaining experience. And yes, she was that bad. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 13, 2016
A gentle and charming entertainment. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonApr 13, 2016
Florence Foster Jenkins is a modestly enjoyable crowd-pleaser, but it ultimately feels smaller than its subject, a deeply conventional portrait of a highly unconventional woman. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianAug 11, 2016
The film champions coddling people like Florence Foster Jenkins and treats critical thinking as the enemy. Read full review
33
The Film StageDaniel SchindelAug 11, 2016
Florence Foster Jenkins is nice, but only in the way that any undeservedly wealthy person considers themselves “nice” when they give a pittance to charity while sheltering as much as possible from the IRS and spending extravagantly on themselves. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshAug 10, 2016
It’s a film that dares you to give it a bad review, simply so it can turn around and call you a bully who picks on the people who try. It invites you to giggle at Florence’s horrible singing and then promptly scolds you for laughing, creating a contradiction that goes unreconciled. Read full review
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