Judy stars Rene Zellweger as Judy Garland, taking place during the last year of her life as she performs a series of sold-out shows in the UK. She struggles with substance abuse and the tour begins to take its toll on her. As she struggles to capture the energy of her glory days, she looks back on her life and what led her to this moment.
This film isn’t like a traditional biopic, in the sense that it mostly sticks to one year in Judy Garland’s life, with only the occasional flashbacks to her younger days. And while an entire look at Garland’s career would without a doubt be fascinating, the decision to keep this story mostly confined to one time period was definitely a smart move. It keeps the story tight and compact, moving at a fairly reasonable pace, despite being nearly two hours in length. It only utilized flashbacks where it was necessary, showing moments in Garland’s life that specifically affected her during this final tour in the 60’s.
And what the film does showcase from these specific time periods looks incredible. This film pulls off some really great work in terms of set design and costume. It evokes the feel of both the 1960’s and the 1930’s well. There’s a romanticized view by older audiences at entertainment pre-1970’s and just how larger than life it could sometimes feel, and the film replicates that feel down to a tee, with everything looking vibrant and colorful. It almost feels like the movie is a time machine and actually transported the audience back to this time period.
Though the strongest element of this film, and the one element that’s been almost universally praised about it, is Renee Zellweger’s performance. If one didn’t know any better, it feels like she is the actual Judy Garland. She captures her mannerisms almost perfectly, and brings a lot of nuance to the role that made her just so captivating to watch each time she’s on screen. And her singing is absolutely incredible. The music is another highlight of this film, recreating some of Garland’s classics such as “Over the Rainbow” and “The Trolley Song,” and Zellweger nails these songs every time.
Though while this movie is consistently engaging, the only major criticism I do have for it is that while this is called Judy and obviously about Judy Garland, it really doesn’t do much with the rest of the characters. Not that it really needed to deviate and go into their backstories for an extended period of time, but everyone else feels like a stock character, and somewhat disposable. They’re there just to give Garland words of encouragement or just to be someone for Garland to talk to when moving from Point A to Point B, and it doesn’t really show how much of an effect they had on Garland herself. It’s just distracting at times when there’s a great scene with Zellweger and then suddenly everyone else is written to simply go through the motions.
This is unfortunate because there really is a talented supporting cast in this film, and they all do fine with the material they’re given. Finn Wittrock is charismatic enough as Garland’s last husband while Rufus Sewell is solid as one of Garland’s previous husbands. Meanwhile, Michael Gambon is charming as one of the major forces behind Garland’s tour and is always a joy to watch. But they’re just given very little to do and they’re just nowhere near as captivating as Zellweger herself.
I’d say Jessie Buckley as Garland’s assistant is by far the most entertaining aspect of the supporting cast. While, along with all these other actors, she isn’t as fleshed out as she should have been, she’s at least given a lot more to do, being the one person who Garland bounces off the most. Therefore, she has more chances to give an entertaining performance that’s by default the second-best performance in the entire movie.
Judy is another fine entry in the biopic genre, and is probably the best of the most recent surge of music biopics that have been released over the last couple of years. While at times it can feel like it’s going through the motions with its thinly written supporting characters, the main attraction is Renee Zellweger, who is just incredible as Judy Garland, bringing both the nuance and vulnerability of the legendary singer out to the forefront. Her performance, combined with some incredible set design work and energetic musical scenes, make Judy a wonderful film to watch.
Recommendation: Watch It
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