The Academy might as well skip the nominations for Best Actress this year and just give the Oscar to Renee Zellweger.
The star of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Jerry Maguire doesn’t simply portray Judy Garland in Judy — she becomes her. Not only does she nail her mannerisms, her posture and her facial expressions but she sings with such emotion and depth that when she finally offers us the heartbreaking version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow we’ve all been waiting for, it’s impossible not to get teary-eyed.
Judy Garland may have been America’s sweetheart but the movie focuses on what really went on behind the curtain. It paints a devastating picture of her childhood and her emotional abuse at the hands of Louis B. Mayer during the filming of The Wizard of Oz.
Most of Judy takes place during Garland’s five-week engagement at Talk of the Town in London in 1969, which she agreed to do only because she was broke, homeless and forced to leave her kids with her ex. Her addiction to drugs and alcohol becomes harder to control as her fifth marriage falls apart, and flashbacks reveal how her pill habit started early on when she needed help sleeping and curbing her appetite to stay movie star thin.
In many ways, Judy is an American tragedy, showing the toll fame can take on a true talent. Garland died of an overdose at the age of 47. Yet Zellweger never plays Garland as a victim. She pays tribute to her passion, getting on that stage because she loves it — the singing, the applause, the affection of her audience. One of the most moving scenes is when a couple of fans wait outside the stage door for her, and she ends up eating a late night omelette with them in their flat, where she is allowed to just be herself. Despite her mega stardom, she is still, as she has to continually remind others, “a person.”
As a movie, Judy isn’t nearly as good as its star — but it doesn’t matter. Zellweger’s performance alone is worth the price of admission.
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