Is Judy Garland still an icon? Or like Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, is she some sort of anachronistic emblem describing more the people who still remember her than the actress/singer herself? More importantly, did this woman ever have fun in her entire life?
Pretty much every American at some point has seen The Wizard of Oz, so we all have some impression of Judy Garland. Judy was so kind as to re-live yesteryear for us, taking us behind the scenes of Oz, where l’il Judy (Darcy Shaw) was haplessly bullied and fed a steady diet of appetite and sleeping pills; it’s enough to make you believe that the film was kind of creepy!
The bulk of Judy, however, was Renée Zellweger nailing down her fortysomething iteration. The teenage stuff exists solely to demonstrate her stolen childhood and its lingering effects on her post-film life. In her forties, Judy Garland’s motivation became entirely about making enough dough to claim custody of her two pre-pubescent children; early on in the film, she decides to take a stage show in London because her El Lay performances barely covered cab fare. And we get an excellent sense of who Judy Garland really is: a mother, a pill popper, a bit of a narcissist, an entertainment machine, an insomniac, a psychological case study, and sometimes even a woman.
Until Act III, I got the impression of Judy Garland as something of an energizer bunny – no matter how low or unfocused she got, you simply threw her in a evening gown, thrust a mic in her hand, flipped a switch, and damn if entertainment wouldn’t happen; there’s no surprise that the best scenes in this film are all musical.
Watching this biopic was a little like watching an avid Buffalo Bills fan reluctantly tell the “OJ Simpson Story.” And just like any OJ picture would be shamefully neglectful for not mentioning the whole “double homicide” thing, eventually and similarly this Judy Garland movie had to talk about the ways that Judy sabotaged her own happiness. She was given a stage and she took it so that in the long run she could spend more time with her children. Yet when it came to honoring her contract, her children were they very last things on her mind. This film is a love letter where the couple has long since broken up.
If I’m being honest, I haven’t really enjoyed Renée Zellweger since the original Bridget Jones’s Diary, which is a looooooooong time ago. And this performance reminded me more of Liza Minnelli than Judy Garland. But, hey, that’s real close, right? One way or another, however, there’s no denying that this is Ms. Zellweger’s best performance in over a decade. I won’t lead an Oscar chant or anything, but I won’t fight it, either.
A pioneer in several ways, Judy Garland paved the way for such modern stage performers such as Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston. Like the slew of recent musical biopics, I think this one transcends the music, which is in itself impressive, because unlike Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, or A Star Is Born, the music here isn’t all that wonderful. I don’t know a single person who still sheds a tear when “Over the Rainbow” breaks out, but you just might upon seeing this version.
♪Clang! Clang! Clang! Went my career
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp! Went those pills
“Bye!” “Bye!” “Bye!” Went my fan base
Wish I’d at least found some thrills♫
Rated PG-13, 118 Minutes
Director: Rupert Goold
Writer: Tom Edge
Genre: Revisiting a tragedy
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The estate of Judy Garland
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Wicked Witches
♪ Parody Inspired by “The Trolley Song”
