Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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While Judy is a drag, due to you seeing the icon within months of her untimely demise, Zellweger and Shaw help you understand how difficult life was for Ms. Garland.
| Director(s) | Rupert Goold | |
| Screenplay By | Tom Edge | |
| Date Released | 9/27/2019 | |
| Genre(s) | Biography, Drama, Musical | |
| Who Is This For? |
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| Where To Buy, Rent, or Stream? | Fandango | |
| Noted Cast | ||
| Judy Garland | Renée Zellweger | |
| Judy Garland (Younger) | Darci Shaw | |
| Sid | Rufus Sewell | |
| Lorna | Bella Ramsey | |
| Joey | Lewin Lloyd | |
| Mikey | Finn Wittrock | |
| Mickey Rooney | Gus Barry | |
| Louis B. Mayer | Richard Cordery | |
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Plot Summary/ Review
At the point we’re introduced to Judy, her life is in a downward spiral and her children, Lorna and Joey, are just along for the ride. Rarely knowing where they will sleep, if they will get a proper meal, and there comes a point Judy has no choice but to turn to Sid for help and listen to his mouth. But bad turns worse for her as she realizes in order to provide for her children, and fight off Sid wanting custody, she has to go to London to work and can’t bring her kids legally.
Leading to her being received as an icon in London, but lonely, and with the only people around her being those making money off her, and Mikey. Someone who goes from friend to husband so quickly that it makes you wonder, if Garland lived past 1969, would she give Elizabeth Taylor a run for her money – in terms of the amount of marriages she had?
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Question(s) Left Unanswered
- Where was Judy’s sisters during all that happened to her?
Highlights
You’ll End Up Crying By The End
The best and worst part of Judy is watching there be some feign hope things could get better but knowing they only get worse. Be it seeing the young Judy and Mickey Rooney together, and thinking maybe he could be her escape from Louis B. Mayer, or seeing the older Judy, ran down, yet still feigning a smile, and wishing something was done to alter her fate. Be it a doctor breaking through, a stint in rehab, something which would have changed her trajectory.
All of which Zellweger and Shaw exhibit to the point that, when the film ends on “Over The Rainbow,” you realize how sorrowful of a song that is. Alongside how long Judy was waiting and searching for the place she has sung about her entire career.
On The Fence
Outside Of The Joy When Judy Is On Stage, This Film Is Damn Near Unrelenting
There are no happy moments in Judy. There is either calm or Judy stepping closer and closer to her demise. Which is draining to watch and while listening to the music you know and love does bring the film some light, Zellweger doesn’t necessarily have stage presence. Like Chadwick Boseman in Get On Up, you get the vibe Zellweger is trying to imitate Garland rather than channel her spirit.
Which doesn’t take away from her performance, but will make you fully feel that 2-hour time length.
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Judy Overall: Mixed (Divisive)
Judy isn’t the type of film that is made for you to reminisce the highs, applaud the successes, and be saddened by the lows. The whole film is a low and while the performances are good quality, Shaw and Zellweger especially, it doesn’t make for a fun movie-going experience. For even with hearing some of Judy’s classics, which you realize, for the most part, are downtrodden, this feels like pure awards bait. Thus cheapening Judy Garland’s life into a fallen star whose rise to fame was muddled with abuse from others and downfall was a side effect of said abuse combined with her abusing herself. Sometimes with drugs and other times in search of someone to love beyond what her children could give.
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