Judy

Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) arrives in London in 1968 to headline a series of showcase performances. She is struggling with addictions, health problems, custody of her kids, and a lifetime of pressure to perform. Rosalyn Wilder (Jessie Buckley) is the overwhelmed producer trying to keep the unstable Judy on time. It doesn't help when Judy's boyfriend Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock) arrives. He becomes her fifth husband and one more disappointment. In flashbacks, a young Judy (Darci Shaw) is under tremendous pressure from Louis B. Mayer to perform.

Zellweger's performance is terrific. Her only small flaw is her singing and that's not her fault. She is asked to embody both greatness and struggle. It's a high degree of difficulty. It would work better if all her singing is live and there is less of it. It leads me to the bigger problem of the structure of the movie. It should squeeze the movie down to her last two performances. The story has no ticking clock and feels meandering at times. The solution is to concentrate the timeline down to a couple of days. The opening with the kids can be better placed in a flashback. The best scene is the dinner with the gay couple and that would be a great antidote after the bad performance. It doesn't need Mickey's arrival and the quickie marriage. He's fine as the constant sycophant who disappoints. The structure flattens the emotional and dramatic tension of the film. Through it all, Zellweger's performance is terrific.

Greetings again from the darkness. It's been 80 years since THE WIZARD OF OZ was released and 50 years since Judy Garland died. So why do we still care so much? Of course the obvious reason is that, for many generations, her adventures as Dorothy Gale from Kansas marked the first time many of us kids could put ourselves in the shoes (mine weren't ruby sparkles) of a lead character in a movie. Her fantastical journey ignited our imaginations and whisked us away to fight witches and flying monkeys, while making wonderful friends in a corn patch and enchanted forest. Oh, and that voice! However, there is another side to this coin. Judy's story is also an example of the dark and tarnished side of Hollywood ... she pulled back more than one curtain.

Renee Zellweger (Oscar winner for COLD MOUNTAIN, 2003) stars as Judy Garland, and her performance will likely put her in line for her fourth Oscar nomination. The film basically covers the last year of Judy's life, and director Rupert Goold (TRUE STORY, 2015) is working from a script by Tom Edge adapted from Peter Quilter's stage play, "End of the Rainbow". There is no Lollipop Guild here. Instead, the harsh realities of Judy's life are explored. The film opens with Judy and her kids, Joe and Lorna, performing on stage ... and then being unceremoniously denied a room at a nearby luxury hotel. See, Judy's career is in a bad way (admittedly undependable and uninsurable) - as is her health. She is broke, has no home, and offers for roles or performances have dried up. She ends up at her ex-husband Sid Luft's (Rufus Sewell) home, which after some former-spouse bickering, is where the kids stay.

With no other real prospective gigs, Judy accepts an offer from Bernard Delfont (Michael Gambon) to perform at his Talk of the Town theatre in London. Most of the film covers her time in London, and the challenges for all involved. She's 46 years old in the winter of 1968, and though her voice no longer carries the sublime purity of those early years, Judy still has incredible stage presence and an ability to connect with the audience. The challenges occur for her assigned assistant Rosalyn Wilder (who served as a consultant on the film, and is played here by rising star Jessie Buckley), as well as Judy herself. She misses her kids, and is battling loneliness and an addiction to pills - causing her to rarely eat or sleep. When her "friend" (and fifth husband) Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock) shows up, Judy's attitude perks up, but her already questionable dependability falters.

Flashbacks to Judy's teenage years at MGM are used to portray how the studio and industry took control of her body, soul and career. Watching studio head Louis B Mayer (Richard Cordery) bully young Judy (played by newcomer Darci Shaw) by pretending to be a father figure while keeping her weight in line with a diet of cigarettes, diet pills, and soup, is just painful. These scenes, including those with young Judy's frequent co-star Mickey Rooney, help us understand why she was in such a state by the time she hit London. Ms. Zellweger embodies the blend of frailty and determination and talent, as well as the insecurities that simultaneously drove Judy and held her back. Of course, few singers have ever possessed the vocal talent of Judy, but Zellweger admirably brings the appropriate strain and pain to the songs she sings for the movie, including "By Myself" and "The Trolley Song".

Born Frances Ethel Gumm, Judy Garland first hit the stage at age 2, and never experienced a "normal" childhood or traditional relationship. Despite her immense talent, she was never able to find peace with the pressures of performing. Years of abuse led to an early death, not long after she finished her London run. The film never backs away from the tragic story, but also allows one of the brightest stars of an era to shine through. For those who only know Judy as that homesick girl from Kansas, or maybe also as the rosy-cheeked youngster on the Trolley in the holiday favorite MEET ME IN ST LOUIS (directed by her future husband Vincente Minnelli), there is likely a shock factor in seeing the broken icon in middle age. The film also deals with that always-present bond she had with her audience, especially with the gay community - although a certain sequence of the film seems quite improbable.

For a film like this to work (it was not sanctioned by Judy's daughter Liza Minnelli), it all rides on the lead performance. Renee Zellweger beautifully captures both the tragic essence and the stunning talent of the late 1960's Judy Garland, an iconic and revered entertainment figure. The film allows us to understand the lifelong mistreatment and heartbreak of this woman, as well as the strength and joy she received while performing live. Balancing the "early" Judy with the "later" Judy was a brilliant way of bringing her life full circle. Ms. Zellweger's performance goes so much deeper than singing on stage ... she embodies the insecurity and frailties of a woman who was never afforded the opportunity to live her own life.

NOTE: There was a 2001 TV mini-series entitled "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows", based on daughter Lorna Luft's memoir, in which Judy Davis (lip-synching to Ms. Garland's songs) delivered an impressive and Emmy winning performance.

There is not much happy going on here. The performances are amazing. Just to displease other comments... Mickey Rooney is in the movie twice. This is just a wow that somebody so well loved could have been so emotionally tortured by herself and other. Great work on the entire movie from cast to production.

Sometimes an entire movie boils down to a lead performance, and JUDY is one of those examples. Fortunately, Renee Zellweger is more than up to to the challenge. Zellweger does more than just an imitation here - sure, the ticks and mannerisms that have been copied and parodied for decades are all on display, but, the actress goes for, and largely, attains several more layers. The script follows the "Last Days" scenario seen in so many bio-pics. The doomed character. The flashbacks. The final triumph. The various side characters who represent assorted people throughout that person's life etc. etc.. Still Zellweger is strong enough to overcome most of the cliches. The rest of the cast does well, but outside of Jessie Buckley as her London assistant, they don't get much to do (Michael Gambon in particular has, almost literally, nothing to do). The Production, music (nice to hear a new Gabriel Yared score), and, most critically, the makeup and hair all work to give us a fairly convincing glimpse of Garland's final months in 1969. Theater Director Rupert Goold keeps the viewer focused on his main character despite some melodramatic passages in Tom Edge's screenplay (based on Peter Quilter's play). The nicest touch is a scene with a male couple (Andy Nyman and Daniel Cerqueira) get to spend a night hosting Judy in London. It's a warm human moment that also pays homage to Garland's relationship with the gay community (a status that she bequeathed to her daughter Liza). Zellweger delivers a strong performance that keeps JUDY moving along, if not always smoothly.

1968. Legendary entertainer Judy Garland is suffering financial troubles, causing her ex-husband Sid Luft to take custody of their children. With possibilities for work in the US limited she signs up to do a series of shows in London. Could this turn her fortunes around?

A film that starts as an interesting biopic and ends as an engaging and emotional journey. I was expecting a dry telling of a stage of Judy Garland's life but this film is so much more than that. We see and feel the ups and downs of her life, realise what it took for her to become a star, the habits it formed and how these took a toll on her health, see the depths to which one of the greatest performers of the mid-1900s had sunk and experience all the self-doubt and anxiety she felt.

It's quite a roller-coaster ride: just when you think she's on a winning streak, something sets her back. Quite sad, and frustrating, especially as many of her problems were self-inflicted.

However, it is not the plot nor direction that make the film. What tips the film into the 'great' side of the dial is the performance of Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland. She is mind-bogglingly brilliant in the role, showing wonderful range and capturing the vagaries of Garland's persona at that point in her life: funny one moment, anxious the next, energetic and vivacious then depressed and alcoholic.

Just when you think her performance can't get better, she sings, and does so superbly! I was convinced that the director got a professional singer to do the songs and then overdubbed their voice track. To my surprise I found that Zellweger did all the singing items herself, after receiving several months of singing training.

Truly an acting tour de force. She well deserved the 2020 Best Actress Oscar she received.

Great film and a wonderful, warts-and-all tribute to Judy Garland.