The story is fascinating. A wealthy socialite, Jenkins can afford to float any number of arts-centric societies; one such club is devoted to music. Since she's paying the bills, Jenkins can cast herself in whatever leading role she wishes. The problem is, she cannot sing. She can almost sing -- this, as members of the cast note in the interviews that comprise the Blu-ray release's slate of extras, is what makes her terrible performances so funny -- and her enthusiasm is downright transcendent; as Streep puts it, "She had the real, pure joy of the amateur."

This combination wins Jenkins legions of fans once her homemade record album ends up being played on the radio. On the home front, her husband, St Clair Bayfield (Grant) -- the illegitimate scion of English nobility -- goes to extraordinary lengths to shield her from the harsh judgement of the wider world, even though their marriage is a platonic one. (He lives with, and pursues a separate relationship with, a mistress.) Her accompanist, Cosm� McMoon (Helberg), regards her with a mixture of awe and horror, and almost cannot bring himself to appear with her in public, despite the small fortune Bayfield pays him. It all leads up to a fateful concert at Carnegie Hall.

The movie's pleasures are consistent and continual. The film never crosses into greatness, but it's skillfully done and beautiful to look at. The special features included on this Blu-ray release are mostly short promos consisting of interviews with the film's cast and crew, who discuss the story, the music, and the production design and costuming. A 15-minute post-screening interview with Streep at the Director's Guild Theater is the longest extra; perhaps the most interesting is "Live at Carnegie Hall, in which Gino Francesconi, Director of the Carnegie Archives and the Ross Museum, talks about the history of the Hall, and the performances that have taken place there across the decades, including Jenkins' performance. A Jenkins documentarian, Donald Collup, also weighs in.) There are also four deleted scenes, one of which is Streep, as Jenkins, holding an audience at Carnegie Hall rapt with an indelible, fantastically inept rendition of Mozart's "Queen of the Night."

Like Foster herself, this film might be a night taste -- but it's a worthwhile one.

"Florence Foster Jenkins"
Blu-ray
$39.99
http://www.paramount.com/movies/florence-foster-jenkins