Glad
I got the chance to see this one. It was the only Leading Actress nominee I
still hadn’t seen, and by all accounts, Renée Zellweger is probably going to
win on Oscar night. I try not to immediately fall over myself in praise of
actors doing impeccable impressions of real-life people – yes, it’s impressive,
but it’s not the be-all end-all of acting – but I can’t say this isn’t a hell
of a performance, both in how Zellweger captures Judy Garland and how she plays
the emotion of the piece.
In
the last year of her life, desperate to pay off her debts and get a house so
she can provide a stable home for her children, Judy Garland takes an extended
gig playing London’s The Talk of the Town for five weeks. Management attempts
to wrangle the troubled star and ensure she makes it onstage night after night
as she wrestles with addiction and declining health.
Before
I get too far into it, I recognize that this movie isn’t as good as it wants to
be. It’s very much an Oscar-bait film, with a script full of scenery-chewing
“For Your Consideration” scenes for Zellweger to play, but at the same time,
the overall story drags in places. The beginning is particularly slow, and like
Rocketman, I feel it struggles at
times with the flow of the narrative, becoming a succession of events rather
than depicting a meaningful rise and fall of action.
But
even though the film she’s in could be better, Zellweger is undeniably
exquisite as Judy. I think the particular period in which it’s set, with
Garland’s health issues and addictions catching up with her, helps Zellweger
get away with the singing. Not that she’s not good, because she really does do
an impressive job with it, but because asking anybody to sing like Judy Garland in her prime would be an
overly-tall order. Throughout the film, Zellweger maintains Judy’s sense of
anxious desperation, almost an equal mix of a tormented woman falling apart
before your eyes and a ragged performer pasting on the falsest of smiles
because she’s determined not to show you the cracks. (Her hair and makeup is
also top-notch, earning the film its other Oscar nod.)
Zellweger
is the best thing about the movie, but she’s not the only one. When the film is
on, it’s really on. The flashbacks of
young Judy, showing the abuse and exploitation she suffered on the set of The Wizard of Oz, are heartbreakingly
well-made. I also really like an interlude involving a couple of devoted
superfans, and the ending is beautiful. You see signs of what could’ve been a
really wonderful film, if the rest of it matched up to the quality of scenes
like that.
The
film additionally features Rufus Sewell, Michael Gambon, and Bella Ramsey
(Lyanna Mormont!) in small roles, along with Finn Wittrock (who I always
recognize from The Big Short.) I also
really like Jessie Buckley, who plays the woman tasked with “looking after”
Judy i.e., powering through however Judy is currently imploding to get her to
make her call time. Her character, Rosalyn, has an interesting dynamic with
Judy, and I wound up feeling for both of them.
Warnings
Strong
thematic elements (including eating disorders and child abuse,)
drinking/smoking/drug use, and suggestiveness.
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