Florence Foster Jenkins

This 1940s-set biopic from director Stephen Frears (The Queen) focuses on a truly idiosyncratic individual: a wealthy New York champion of the arts who puts her own singing centre stage despite being devoid of talent. Meryl Streep plays Florence Foster Jenkins as daffy yet endearing, someone whose ego is indulged but whose chronic health problems expose her vulnerability. Although she brings great depth to what is in essence a comic turn, the genius of Streep's performance is how entertaining she makes the musical sequences, taking us on a journey of epic awfulness, as Florence massacres a variety of operatic numbers. Hugh Grant excels, too, as her adoring but adulterous husband St Clair Bayfield, with Big Bang regular Simon Helberg delivering some priceless reactions as her pianist Cosmé. Though it delights in the eccentric details, the movie remains robustly compassionate, balancing our concern for Jenkins's feelings with the hilarious spectacle of her tone-deaf singing. It's a film that celebrates one of life's enthusiasts and doing something for the pure joy of it.