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A Tad Off-Key

In the 1920s, there was a very wealthy woman named Florence Foster Jenkins, who fancied herself a great operatic soprano. Xavier Giannoli's "Marguerite" is loosely based on her singing career, although career isn't probably the best description for her experience.

Marguerite Dumont (Catherine Frot) believes she has a golden voice and she often entertains groups at the home she shares with her husband, played amusingly by André Marcon. Whenever it comes time for Marguerite to perform in their home, he goes out for a drive in his classic old car that is very prone to breaking down. It almost always breaks down in the same spot, right after he pulls over and disables it. He can't just lie to his wife about why he missed her performance, so he breaks it and fixes it in time to arrive back home shortly after the end of her performance.

When we see Marguerite perform for the first time, the audience hides their snickering and a large group of them adjourn to another room until the concert is over. Apparently, this is a regular occurrence when Marguerite screeches out her sour notes. Her butler and photographer, Madelbos (Denis Mpunga), serves as her rock, always propping her up and protecting her from learning the truth of just how untalented she is.

Two young gentlemen have crashed the performance. Young music critic, Lucien (Sylvain Dieuaide), and his friend Aubert (Kyrill Von Priest), a man dedicated to anarchy. They are new to the poor singing of Marguerite. While everyone else attending is either laughing or avoiding it in another room, these two hatch a scheme to make money on the rich lady who can't sing. Both are reprehensible, especially Aubert.

The two young men convince her to perform in public for the first time. The results are as expected. From there, Marguerite's life unravels and it is difficult to find a decent human being anywhere around her. Giannoli has created an unusual scenario where the only character we care about is Marguerite and the primary reason is the great performance by Ms. Frot.

"Marguerite" is quite enjoyable but it dances on the thread that separates comedy from drama, never quite falling onto either territory. It leaves you unsure whether to root for or against anyone, although by the end, all of the characters motives are finally exposed, especially one in particular. Somehow it still works well enough even if it won't leave you singing its praises, in tune or otherwise.