Judy is a platform for Renée Zellweger’s tour de force performance
Judy may be Biopic 101 with a generic storyline, but it all fades away the minute Renée Zellweger arrives, giving a powerhouse performance.
Judy Garland is a woman far too often associated with the traumas she endured rather than the legacy she left behind. A teenage girl who rocketed to stardom at the age of 16 with her performance in The Wizard of Oz, Garland’s life after that was well documented, filled with multiple marriages, financial struggles, and open drug addiction.
Too often her life is boiled down to just these beats with little in-between to connect them, as is the case with director Rupert Goold’s Judy, a by-the-numbers biopic that offers little new story for those well versed in Garland’s life. What it does have though is Renée Zellweger in a breathtaking, transformative performance as the title star, infusing the pathos and humanity into her performance that the script can’t seem to find.
In 1968, Garland (Zellweger), broke and seeking a means of caring for her two children, travels to London for a series of shows at the famed restaurant The Talk of the Town. Once there, Garland struggles to balance her own personal demons with her past, present, and future.
There are several Garland biopics to choose from of varying qualities, but most take a cradle to grave approach, cramming in as much as they can. Goold’s feature focuses on a compressed amount of time six months before Garland’s death at the age of 47, and despite having a narrow window to work with, it still feels the need to fit an unjustified two-hour runtime.
Garland repeatedly flashes back to an unspecified period in her teenage years sometime around her 16th birthday, and the filming of The Wizard of Oz. This Judy (played by Darci Shaw) is constantly micromanaged by studio head, Louis B. Mayer. She’s forbidden from eating, taking breaks, or even sleeping. Her life is a series of pep pills, publicity photos, and an occasional longing glance at co-star Mickey Rooney.
These moments will help an audience that knows nothing about Garland understand why she became the drug-addicted mess she was in 1969, but for anyone with more knowledge than that, it feels like a Cliff’s Notes version that sums up Garland’s unhappiness purely to being unloved by Rooney. Mayer here is presented as an overbearing man who could be mean, but the closest thing to a father Garland had, which is a highly sanitized way of looking at him.
The flashbacks could be easily excised, and per IMDb, it appears there might have been more that were cut. But what truly keeps Judy afloat is Zellweger. The physical transformation is one thing, but what Zellweger expertly captures is Judy’s essence. The way she can throw out a joke, emphasizing the right words while making it sound so casual, is utterly perfect. Listen to her first meeting with future husband Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock) and the way she says “Frank Sinatra’s here” — you’ll truly believe the real Garland is in the room.
These same moments are found in the few musical performances that are found within Judy. If you’re expecting a full-fledged musical, you’re in for a disappointment, as only a few of Garland’s songs are utilized, the first being about 45 minutes in. But hearing Zellweger belt out “The Trolley Song” or “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is breathtaking, as the actress combines both her own vocal register with the occasional Garland-like belt.
Zellweger shows us the consummate performer; an actress as addicted to the stage as she is to pills. It’s sad to hear production manager Rosalyn Wilder (an underutilized Jessie Buckley) grin and say that Garland “can’t help” performing. One of many lines the audience laughed at that seems like it should play as grimmer than it is.
The overly sensitive nature of the script ends up undermining what many know was a harsh and tragic moment in Garland’s life. Yes, the movie says that we should love her in spite of her issues, but those issues seem highly sanitized. Her relationship with Deans is presented as little more than an impulsive love match between two people who met once as opposed to the cold, calculating man Deans was in reality. Wittrock is all swagger and good looks in a discount version of a character Richard Madden did better in Rocketman. The only gravity of sadness comes through in Garland’s relationship with Sid Luft (Rufus Sewell) and her two children.
Watching Garland, the mother who can’t do right, and her deteriorating relationship with an ex-husband who is trying to do the best for his kids is compelling, and it’s worth the price of admission. It’s also where the movie would be better served as a stageplay, which is what it started out as. There are real emotions, pain, and history. Garland dragging her children from place to place was a real thing and took a toll on her kids, something that is never explored. All the love, hunger, and pathos is there more than the bright lights of the stage.
Zellweger’s Golden Globe nomination is all but secured, and it is worthy, even if the movie feels like this year’s Films Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. Judy, as a whole, is a formulaic biopic meant to appeal to those who know little about the colossal talent at its center. Its generic storyline is thankfully uplifted by its leading lady who reminds us why Judy Garland was such a star, and why Renee Zellweger is too.
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