Film Review: Judy (2019)

It’s amazing how time can change a person. When I recently saw Renée Zellweger’s interview with Lorraine Kelly on ITV1, I was amazed how she had very much matured as a person and as an actress. In my view, she can no longer be associated with the ditsy Marilyn Monroe-esque parts that she played years ago in Chicago (2002) and Down With Love (2003). Nor, do I think, would she longer be quite right for the role which made her a household name, the romantically afflicted Bridget Jones.

it’s public knowledge that Zellweger took a substantial break from acting for personal reasons. And the decision to take this sabbatical is very much to her credit as she comes back refreshed and wonderfully uncanny in the part of Judy Garland in this year’s hotly anticipated biopic directed by Rupert Goold, known principally for his work in English theatre. Having seen Lorraine Kelly’s interview with Zellweger after the film, I observed that she still appeared to be articulating the idiosyncrasies of Judy which she pulls off so well in the film. So perhaps, if Zellwgger did indeed make some spiritual connection with her alter go in her research for the part, it seems clear that the spirit of Judy, powerful as it seems, has not yet left her…

The film begins slap bang in the swinging 60s with a world weary Garland and her two young kids travelling around as she tries to make what money she can performing different theatre shows in America. Facing great financial difficulties, she makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her children with their financially stable but stony father, Sidney (the always understated Rufus Sewell) and accept the offer of a season in London at the famous Talk Of The Town theatre under the direction of renowned British theatre impresario, Bernard Delfont (the ever faithful Michael Gambon) and his associate, Rosalyn (the brilliant rising star, Jessie Buckley, recently acclaimed in Wild Rose).

Arriving in London, the prescription drug-addled Judy struggles to keep it together, nearly missing her premiere performance completely, and thereafter turning up late and often incoherent to performances, to the disappointment of Belfont, and the horror of uncomprehending audience members (who, on one occasion, throw things at her on stage as if she were some pilloried criminal and not the beloved star of The Wizard Of Oz). Speaking of which, the film is cleverly peppered with flashbacks to her adolescence in which she was insidiously groomed by studio staff for her role in the classic film, suffering emotional blackmail at the hands of the imposing studio boss, Louis B. Mayer (a small but brilliant performance by Richard Cordery) and given countless pills instead of food to supposedly “keep her weight down” for the role, setting her lifelong addiction in motion.

Amongst the bleakness, there are true moments of joy, such as when Judy sings on stage (Zellweger’s actual voice, which can be both powerful and velvety, and can be heard anew on the film’s soundtrack) and her courtship with her eventual second husband, the hip, young, Mickey (Finn Wittrock). Though Judy’s was a largely sad life, the love for her children is clearly what gave her strength and purpose in later life, even while she was fighting back the tears. As she aptly says before performing her beloved standard, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, “This is a song about hope. And we all need that”.