BUFFALO, N.Y. — There is no singer or entertainer more iconic than the great and talented Judy Garland.
She only lived for 47 years, and in that time packed in triumph and tragedy. In the late 1960’s, broke, depressed and addicted, she signed up for a five-week engagement at London’s Talk of the Town nightclub. That engagement is where the film Judy finds its focus. The story about the last months of Garland's life is wracked with pathos and poignancy and is one of the greatest object lessons in the history of entertainment. It is a shame that, as it turns out, Director Rupert Goold (True Story) and Renée Zellweger (Chicago, Leatherheads) really aren’t up to the cinematic task.
After a number of engagements with her two youngest children, Lorna (Bella Ramsey, Two for Joy, Holmes & Watson) and Joey Luft (Lewin Lloyd, The Aeronauts, TV’s The Alienist), Garland finds herself homeless. Ex-husband Sidney Luft (Sewell, Gods of Egypt, TV’s The Man in the High Castle) takes in the kids. An acquaintance of Judy’s, Michael Deans (Wittrock, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, If Beale Street Could Talk) suggests she take up the offer from London’s Talk of the Town nightclub as a way of easing her financial problems. Reluctantly, Judy takes the suggestion. However, depressed with substance addictions, will Judy Garland be able to muster the physical and psychological wherewithal to successfully complete these engagements?
Zellweger is both the best and worst thing about Judy. She deserves high praise for her thespian commitment to the role of Garland. She manages to portray Garland’s torment and depression (along with her wicked sense of humor) in perfect fashion. There are scenes in this film that are emotionally evocative in the most superb fashion, and their success are due to both the direction, and Zellweger’s prodigious skill. Zellweger’s acting ability and her singing ability are not in question, for indeed Zellweger can act and certainly can sing. The problem is not one of acting skill, but rather one of casting. Garland’s brassy contralto and amazing timbre are not something that Zellweger is capable of matching. While she performs the numbers almost flawlessly, she just doesn’t sound like Garland. Perhaps if they’d brought in the likes of Jane Horrocks (Little Voice, Chicken Run) to be a voice double, that might have helped. The other problem is one of appearance. Zellweger doesn’t look enough like Garland to really be convincing, even with some pretty intense make-up. Perhaps Anne Hathaway (Ocean’s Eight, Serenity) might have been a better choice. This reviewer thinks it telling of Garland’s amazing talent that it really would take the combined efforts of two actors to adequately portray her. While the other performers work in Zellweger’s shadow in this film, they still turn in some nice performances, with a special shout-out to Jesse Buckley (Wild Rose, Beast) for her turn as Rosalyn Wilder, Garland’s handler for her Talk of the Town engagement.
The other major problem with this film, (and this reviewer admits that this to some degree small beer) is that the writers monkeyed around with the timeline of events in the final months of Garland’s life, presumably for reasons having to do with making the narrative more compact or easily understood. Whatever the reason, it’s not good enough. Judy Garland’s memory deserves far more respect than this cinematic re-jiggering affords it. With all that in mind, Judy is deserving of 3 and a half out of 5 boxes of popcorn.
Judy Rated PG-13 for substance abuse, thematic content, some strong language, and smoking and runs 118 minutes.
There is something a bit more, well, cheerful, opening this weekend. Abominable looks like an amiable enough family friendly cartoon. It’s getting a bit of critical acclaim. It’s Rated-PG for some action and mild rude humor.
Only two films opening in Western New York this weekend, but there are still lots of other good choices at the theaters that’ve opened over the past few weeks…like Ad Astra and this reviewer's current horror favorite, Ready or Not (review of which is linked below. I’m Larry Haneberg, and I’m taking you 2 the Movies.
RELATED: 2 the Movies: It Chapter Two
RELATED: 2 the Movies: Ready, Set, Kill