Oscars 2017: 20 Predicted Best Film Nominees Ranked Worst To Best

If Meryl Streep gets an Oscar nomination for her performance as erstwhile enthusiastic songstress Florence Foster Jenkins, she will probably deserve it. It's the latest in a long line of transformative performances of which she can be equally proud, but it also probably lacks the dramatic punch some of her other work is drenched in.

The film itself is a fairly lightweight affair, telling the true-life story of the New York heiress encouraged by blind love and her own blinkered naivety into performing in public as a singer, despite not being able to carry a note. At times as excruciating as it is humorous, the story mercifully spares us from truly victimising Jenkins (and nor does it absolve her or her friends and family of blame), but what we get is an affectionate tale of humanist perseverance, whose message of the power of trying is simple but deeply affecting.

It's in no way as "important" as some of the other true life films made in the past year or so, but Florence Foster Jenkins is a humble, happy little outsider in the race that absolutely deserves to be seen.