Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

Nominated for Best Actress and Best Costume Design    This was a really cute film.  Light and fluffy, very sweet, and a nice counterbalance to the dark, depressing usual Oscar fare.

Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) is a New York socialite, heiress to a multimillion dollar fortune, and patron of the arts.  She is also, quite possibly, the worst opera singer ever known to man, a fact kept from her quite carefully by her husband, St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant).  Madame Florence sails through life in blissful ignorance until she decides to make a recording and delivers it to a local radio station.  It becomes their most requested album and Florence decides to capitalize on this outpouring of public acclaim and give a concert at Carnegie Hall, donating a thousand seats to veterans returned from World War II.  Bayfield and Florence's pianist, Cosme (Simon Helberg), scramble to try and mitigate the experience before Florence is exposed to outright mockery.

The synopsis makes it sound kind of terrible, but I assure you this is an adorable movie.  There's no sense of mean-spiritedness about it, or commentary on people taking advantage of a wealthy, deluded woman for their own gains.  Florence is portrayed as being held in the fondest regards by pretty much anyone who came into contact with her and even Bayfield's manic stacking of the deck in her favor comes across as an act of love, not self-interest.

Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep so you know you're going to get quality.  I've never liked Hugh Grant, but he does his best.  For me, the real standout here was Simon Helberg, who totally shed his Big Bang Theory character to play Cosme.  His subtle humor, mostly in facial expressions and line delivery, were perfect.  He stole every scene he was in, for me.  I'm actually a little disappointed there hasn't been more love for him this season.

The Best Actress race this year is a tough one, even for a veteran like Streep.  This is a good role, but I don't think it's her best.  Costume Design is harder to predict, since it comes down to expertise in details, but I don't think it has much of a chance there either.