Simon Helberg in ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’, Alongside Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant
Upon watching Florence (2016) again, I have a new favorite actor. It’s Simon Helberg, who may very well earn an Oscar in the future. Here’s why. Includes spoilers.
The first time I watched Florence, in a movie theater, I laughed so very hard when Meryl Streep started to sing, even though as an audience we’d been cued in that Florence Foster Jenkins was, indeed, quite ill — and not only from the syphilis, it may appear, given that she took mercury and arsenic for it (as was the treatment at the time).
When the movie starts, Florence — based on the real Florence Foster Jenkins — is in her early seventies and suffering from second-stage syphilis. She is on the portly side and carries her illness bravely, even indulging in emotional agitation, something that one of her doctors warned her about. (Of course the doctor would say that, I thought, but as this illness affects the nervous system and body in ways that are still not completely understood, there may be some truth in that as well, just as there is, in fact, some of it in mercury and arsenic, however toxic they may be.)
Both following and ignoring doctor’s orders, Florence is living life to the…
