Judy Garland in 1939, the year she starred in The Wizard of Oz
Judy Garland and fifth husband Mickey Deans in London, 1968
JUDY B
Great Britain (118
mi) 2019 d: Rupert Goold
Official
site
In a long-established Hollywood tradition, actors are
largely rewarded for playing well-known or popular figures, where a long line
of Best Actor awards have been given to George C. Scott as General Patton,
Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, Ben Kingsley as Gandhi, F. Murray Abraham as
Mozart’s rival, Salieri, Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, Philip Seymour Hoffman as
Truman Capote, Forest Whittaker as Idi Amin, Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, Colin
Firth as King George VI, Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Eddie Redmayne as
Stephen Hawking, Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, and Rami Malek as Freddie
Mercury. The same can be said in the
Best Actress category, where there have been similar occurrences, like Barbra
Streisand as Fanny Brice, Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Sissy
Spacek as Loretta Lynn, Susan Sarandon as Sister Helen Prejean, Nicole Kidman
as Virginia Woolf, Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash, Helen Mirren as Queen
Elizabeth II, Marion Cotillard as Édith Piaf, Meryl Streep as Margaret
Thatcher, and Olivia Colman as Anne, Queen of England. All indications at this early stage of the
year is that Renée Zellweger (after taking a 5-year sabbatical from acting) will
be a shoo-in for her portrayal of the legendary Judy Garland, which is particularly
controversial as the Garland family was defiantly against this project from
getting off the ground, though it’s an intelligent adaptation written by Tom
Edge from Peter Quilter’s play End of the
Rainbow, revisiting the hectic final year of her life when she was forced
to do a 5-week tour in London to earn money, in what were sold-out shows, but
she was going through a particularly tumultuous time in her life, separated
from her children, going through the things stars have to endure as their star
is fading, but in Garland’s case it’s particularly compelling, as she was a
child star in the MGM studios run by a ruthlessly autocratic studio head Louis
B. Mayer (Richard Cordery) who not only touched her inappropriately but had her
on a strictly enforced, daily regimented diet at age 16, including pills to
keep her awake for the grueling 18-hour days of shooting as well as pills to
help her sleep, which started a pattern of lifelong addiction which is quite
apparent near the end of her life. As if
to emphasize this point, the film has flashback sequences when she was
preparing for her role as Dorothy in THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), with Darci Shaw
as young Judy, still innocent, yet brimming with life, though completely
frustrated by her blatant mistreatment, as she is eventually run into the
ground from exhaustion and overwork until they have no further use for her
after exploiting her stardom for hundreds of millions of dollars, only to end
up throwing her away as damaged goods. Bookending
her career at the beginning and the end is a fateful portrayal filled with
tragic overtones.
Part of Zellweger’s appeal, of course, lies in the immense
adoration for Judy Garland, who has come to define the term “show business,”
with an accent on business, as she was an exploited commodity, yet she always
put on a show, a supremely gifted artist at the top of her craft, personified
by her spellbinding performance in A
Star Is Born (1954), where she was not rewarded with an Oscar that everyone
in Hollywood expected her to receive, tragically awarded instead to Grace Kelly
in the utterly forgettable film THE COUNTRY GIRL, with Groucho Marx afterwards calling
it “the greatest robbery since the Brinks.”
This has come to define the tragedy of her life, as she was never
recognized by the very industry that created her, that turned her into a star,
beloved around the world, but not in Hollywood, apparently, even though no one
could match her voice, pouring her heart and soul into anything she did,
becoming an iconic figure simply in how she managed to survive, against all
odds, with her talent and wit intact, but troubled by inner demons that
followed her throughout her entire life.
One of the interesting things about Judy Garland is how she simply
jumped from being an innocent teenage heartthrob to a full-grown woman, sailing
past young adulthood, as if aging decades overnight, much of it after
developing a studio reputation for being difficult on the set, late, even
unreliable, where they tarnished her reputation, intentionally lowering her
market value if she switched to a different studio, basically ruining her
career, as she was blackballed by the industry, rarely working again in films. So she had to reinvent her career through
television and musical concerts, becoming a hit in Las Vegas singing with the
Rat Pack before giving an unforgettable, career-defining performance at
Carnegie Hall, releasing a two-record album afterwards that won Grammys for
album of the year (the first female winner) and best female vocal of the year,
becoming chummy with the Kennedys during their brief hiatus in Camelot, taking
an early stand in support of the Civil Rights movement and was a huge advocate
for human rights, embraced by the gay community as an icon, easily identifying
with how she changed her image from an adorable young girl to a bombastic
figure of towering strength, identifying with the trajectory of her career,
filled with personal struggles, yet also unafraid to wear pants onstage while
performing, where her vocalizations were so personal, as if she was speaking
directly to each person in the audience.
It’s that personal relationship to Judy Garland that endures, something
she created with her embattled career, earning our collective admiration and
respect, as she is a once in a lifetime figure, a one and only, as there is no
one else like her. What’s unique about
this film is that it pays tribute to a star, even one that is falling, but
she’s still a star.
One can find no fault in Zellweger’s ability to immerse
herself in the legendary persona of Garland, using many of the same gestures
and facial expressions, and does her own singing, but simply can’t match the
vocal range, as who can? Yet she does
provide the personal intimacy of what she’s going through emotionally, even
when performing the songs. While
Hollywood tends to go ga-ga in rewarding iconic portrayals of real people,
which is more about rewarding itself as an industry, which is something
Hollywood loves to do, and occasionally Zellweger appears completely out of
place as the real thing, yet she beautifully captures the sense of
moment-to-moment desperation that she found herself in, continually feeling
cornered and broke, yet refusing to surrender, like most of the scenes with her
ex-husband Sydney Luft (Rufus Sewell) as they were going through an acrimonious
divorce. Easily the best scenes are
something of a surprise, as she runs into a gay couple waiting for her outside
the stage door one night, Dan (Andy Nyman) and Stan (Daniel Cerqueira), who
attend every one of her shows in London.
Having nothing better to do, she decides to have dinner with them, but
every restaurant in the city is closed at such a late hour, so they invite her
up to their apartment for an omelet that goes woefully wrong (hint: don’t add
cream), which of course devastates Stan, who just wanted to create something
special. Retreating for drinks and a
game of cards, their bond is sealed over a quietly downbeat version of “Get Happy”
at the piano when Dan breaks down recalling how humiliated he was when
imprisoned for homosexuality, which was the British law until 1967, yet this is
arguably the most poignant moment of the entire film, as her compassion
symbolizes what she represents and why she is so universally adored. The rest of the film is fairly conventional,
living out of an upscale hotel room, where time alone tends to wear on her,
especially missing her children, where she works late hours and then can’t
sleep, leaving her filled with a restless anxiety that never goes away, that
actually feeds into her performance, as something underneath has been the
driving force her entire life, always told she wasn’t pretty enough, that she
was never good enough, becoming overly critical of her own work, filled with
self-doubts, never really believing in herself, always a bit terrified before a
performance, but it drove her to work extra hard, becoming a volcanic force of
nature when she hit the stage, suddenly transformed into a show business icon,
like a surreal extension of herself. Yet
in the twilight of her career, she was so afraid of disappointing an audience,
especially when she wasn’t so sure she could hit those notes anymore. In the film she’s given a personal assistant,
Rosalyn (Jessie Buckley, a stand-out), whose job is to get her ready each day
for the daily regimen of scheduled events, including interviews and
appearances, invariably leading to a cocktail or two and a mouthful of pills,
so that by the time of her performance she’s unable to perform, yet they throw
her out there anyway with disastrous results.
These are cringeworthy moments the Garland family would probably prefer
were omitted from the film, yet despite a few embarrassing turns, including an
impromptu wedding with Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock, her fifth husband,
basically to kill the time) that ends disastrously as well, the film will rise
or fall on those set pieces singing those fabulous numbers we’re all so
familiar with. Zellweger doesn’t
disappoint, as she is consumed by the role, bringing the needed dramatic intensity,
even in the quiet moments, deftly balancing the good with the bad. Nothing can replace the true legend, but as
far as Hollywood goes, it’s a beautifully configured film, drawn from exquisite
material that is tinged with a touch of sadness, leaving viewers with the L.
Frank Baum quote that set the wheels of her career in motion, perhaps finally
getting her just due, “A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how
much you are loved by others.”
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