Judy is not a full-on biopic, but an account of Judy Garland’s late-in-life performances on the British stage — not so much to effect a comeback as to tread water well enough to avoid drowning.
The film is set mostly in early 1969, when Garland’s health was poor and her finances were poorer. She hadn’t appeared in a movie in six years, and what money she did have had been allegedly embezzled by her managers (information the movie omits), leaving her with a giant tax bill and little income.
Desperate to provide for her two younger children, Lorna and Joey Luft, and hopefully regain custody, Garland accepts a generous offer to perform several weeks at the cavernous Talk of the Town nightclub in London. That’s the background for exploring Judy’s many struggles: with drugs and alcohol, with self-doubt and with a new young suitor.
The man is Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock, The Last Black Man in San Francisco), a nightclub manager whose upbeat affection and big dreams give Judy hope and the movie some positive energy. Mostly, Judy is a downer, a portrait of self-destruction that gets the crackup right but can’t quite pinpoint its source. Sure, a series of flashbacks to Judy’s teen years at MGM establish the source of her pill habit. But screenwriter Tom Edge (adapting Peter Quilter’s play, The End of the Rainbow) doesn’t connect the dots: What really made Judy Garland so fragile and unreliable?
What Judy is left with, then, is Renee Zellweger’s all-in performance in the lead role. Pursing her lips and squinting her eyes endlessly, she creates a credible, entertaining portrayal. She’s good in bad moments, but she’s great in the movie’s few moments of real joy, when Judy sees Mickey as her savior or has a good night on the stage. Sadly, Zellweger has few developed characters to play against. Her best foil is Rufus Sewell as ex-husband Sid Luft, the only person who challenges Judy with hard truths. Their scenes together offer glimpses of Judy’s inner life that are missing from the rest of the movie.
The director, Rupert Goold (True Story), has little to offer to turn Judy from an interesting study in impersonation to an in-depth personality study. He’s a skilled enough craftsman, and the movie looks great, but if he’s got a vision for what audiences should take away from Judy other than “child stars make for at-risk adults,” it’s not apparent.
Starts Sept. 27 at the Fine Arts Theatre
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