"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Friday, January 31, 2020

Judy (2019, PG-13)


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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