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.

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.

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.

With Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland, you can not only feel her and see her, but you forget Zellweger is even there at all. Like many great performances, you see the character and forget that there is even an actor. Watching her performance is like watching a cosmic display. Some things are just meant to happen.

There have been many so-so bio-pics as of late, most comparably Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, in which another great actress, Benning, portrays the troubled last days of another great actress, Graham. Comparably, Zellweger's performance outshines the more renowned Benning. By contrast, Liverpool is also jaggedly uneven. That's not to say that Judy is perfect. Music bios are tough. Rami supposedly was great in Bohemian Rhapsody, but the film encompassed a superficial sentiment and lacked intellectual curiosity. Control, the Joy Division piece, is maybe the best in recent years... But Judy is right up there.

The story covers her last gig in London. The film uses flashbacks in order for the audience to understand her character. While most of those around her only see a washed up star, who was just forty seven.

What the story lacks in structure, it makes up with warmth. While this is a softer portrait, it still feels authentic. It finds no purpose in portraying her issues with callousness. Instead the narrative depends on Garland trying to understand herself, while making poor choice after poor choice. If you know anything about Garland, you know where she is going... But what you may not know, is she how she arrived there. It is a deeply sentimental portrait of a brilliant mind and troubled heart.

There have been some cynics saying that "Only a fool would try to play Garland." Dare, I say, Zellweger just made a fool out of you.

See this movie, it will remind you of yourself.

Renee immerses herself in the role of Judy Garland, locking up her 4th Oscar Nomination, and likely her second Oscar win, 15 years after Cold Mountain.

One would expect that a truly legendary and iconic actress / singer / dancer like Judy Garland would be enjoying the fruits of her long time successful career, and the accolades of her adoring fans, who would be lining up to buy tickets to see her perform. Alas, Garland's life eptomized the Hollywood cautionary tale of child stars.

Despite massive talent, and amazing work ethic, alcohol, prescription drugs, bad husband choices, despicable studio bosses, and an even worse mother, gave her little chance to bypass tragedy.

Renee clearly did her homework, nailing the nuances of Garland's personality, trooper attitude, eccentric stage mannerisms, and distinctive vocals - The buy-in to Renee as Judy was immediate and never wavered.

Brief flashbacks take us back to production of "The Wizard of Oz" whose namesake himself couldn't save Judy from the Mother from Hell or the Boss From Hell (Louis B Mayer), for just the right amount of time to give the story supporting background fill.

This is largely a spotlight film role for Renee, fitting for the part of Judy Garland whose spotlighted roles carried films.

Renee delivers to the audience a still enthusiastic, but destitute and barely "functional alcoholic" Judy Garland who still has her trade-mark trooper-attitude pragmatism, but is desperately trying to earn enough money to just have a place to sleep for her children and ends up taking the only gig she can get (In London where her fandom still burns bright and large) that gives her hope to earn enough money to right her sinking ship, and retain custody of her children back in America after her 4th divorce.

Judy's final tragic journey in her life is a roller coaster of desperation and sad realizations.

Renee hits one out of the park (and over the rainbow) putting forth what is clearly the best Lead Actress performance of the year thus far, earning her a 10/10, and elevating 'Judy' to an overall 8/10. Bravo