Judy: Zellweger

Channels Garland

by Sandra Olmsted

Largely driven by Renée Zellweger’s compelling and loving performance, director Rupert Goold’s heartfelt biopic Judy chronicles only the last month’s of Judy Garland’s life. Financially ruined by film producer and third-husband Sid Luft’s (Rufus Sewell) gambling addiction, Judy Garland (Zellweger) finds herself penniless, homeless, and mostly unemployable by 1968. The only job on offer, five weeks on the nightclub stage, means leaving her beloved children. Driven by the threat of losing custody of Lorna (Bella Ramsey) and Joey (Lewin Lloyd) Luft to their father, Judy Garland takes the desperately-needed, five-week gig at London’s Talk of the Town nightclub for British promotor Bernard Delfont (Michael Gambon). ?
Before accepting the London job, Judy visits with oldest daughter Liza Minnelli (Gemma-Leah Devereux) and meets Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), a handsome, young disc jockey, who either is mesmerized by Judy or gold-digging. Meanwhile, memories, in the form of flashbacks, recount Judy’s childhood at MGM and mirror her current emotional struggles to feel loved, even for a moment. During the filming of the Wizard of Oz, the studio needed fifteen-year-old Judy (Darci Shaw) to remain thin and younger-looking, so her mother, Ethel Gumm (Natasha Powell), forces Judy to starve herself and to take pep pills and sleeping pills, setting Judy on a not-so Yellow Brick Road. ?
In London, Judy struggles with the demons created by her drug-addled, love-starved childhood at MGM; demons that now only occasionally disappear when she’s on stage and feels loved. When Mickey makes a surprise visit to London to see Judy, she quickly escalates the relationship to marriage. Zellweger, who does all the singing in her portrayal of the legendary singer, brings Judy Garland to life with the love and compassion that was often absent from Garland’s own life. In one of the most wrenching moments, Judy’s stalwart London assistant Rosalyn Wilder (Jessie Buckley) and Burt (Royce Pierreson), the club’s bandleader, take Judy out for her birthday, and Judy, who has never been told to enjoy her cake, inspect her piece as if she has never seen one. At times, Judy’s performances are top-notch and, on other nights, the crowd is less than compassionate. Although Judy was not often treated with basic human decency in life, Zellweger channels Judy Garland in a way that evokes love and understanding for the real person behind the beloved Dorothy.  ?
Judy, the film, also evokes the same nostalgia and desire for an alternative history that the recent Stan & Ollie did. Apparently, Britain is where great American stars, even ones with British roots, like Laurel and Hardy, go to die, figuratively or literally. For Judy Garland, age 47, London became that place on June 22nd, 1969 during a concert in Chelsea, London; however, Goold ends the film before showing Judy’s death, leaving us with the image of a broken but determined woman. Zellweger’s incredibly nuanced performance feels like Oscar bait and is worth seeing Judy more than once. A Roadside Attractions release, Judy, runs a well-paced and compelling 118 minutes and is rated PG-13 for substance abuse, thematic content, some strong language, and smoking. Judy is in theaters now.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us