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Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Growing up, one of my favorite films to watch with my mom was The Wizard of OZ. How can’t you not love that movie? Also, my mom is from Kansas and lived on a little farm with my grandparents. Who could forget little Dorothy Gale, played by the iconic Judy Garland? To see the effects of being a child star and the price Judy Garland had to pay was eye-opening and one that needs to be seen. You have heard tales of her begin feed diet pills or smoking two packs of cigarettes a day during the Wizard of OZ film because she needed to look thin and keep up with her work schedule. Judy is a film that will make you look differently at the star and feel sorry for her. Many people didn’t realize and including me, that sometimes the place you would rather be is over the rainbow.
The film opens with a younger Judy Garland (Shaw) on the Wizard of Oz set in 1939. She is speaking with MGM studio manager, Louis B Mayer. Louis tells Judy that there are plenty of girls out in the world that are prettier than her, and the only reason she is a star is because her voice has the ability to reach people’s hearts. He gives her an ultimatum: she can stay and be the star he believes her to be or go back home and be like all the other girls and work in a restaurant like her mother. Judy apologizes for her defiance and hopes she can have a normal life by going to the theater once in a while. Louis, in a dick move, scoffs and notes that if that is the case, then they could just bring in Shirley Temple for the film, instead. They reach the musical director, and they start the opening chords to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
The film jumps to 1968. We see Judy Garland (Zellweger) much older and her two youngest children, Lorna Luff and Joey Luff. She is dressing Joey and commenting her little boy is growing up so fast and buying new clothes will cost her money each time. As they are wrapping up a series of concerts in New York, she is given an envelope of $150. A small amount for once the biggest star in the world.
As the debts pile up, Garland accepts the invitation of the London to perform a five-week-long series of concerts at the Talk of the Town nightclub. With a way to pay the bills, the past still haunts Garland. These habits come to a head as the performer starts to hit her breaking point and threatening her chance for success. Will the once major star be able to overcome the pain and demons of her past and find what she is looking for over the rainbow?
I’m not going to sit here and say that Judy is a great film. It is a pretty average film about the life of the legendary actress. What I will say is that this film sheds some major light on what she went through, and that is the shitty part of the whole movie. What she went through as a kid should’ve never been tolerated. The film perfectly added subtle flashback moments to her childhood to truly learn what the actress went through. They are so strong and powerful that you see why she was truly a flawed person and had her own demons that messed up her future. On the outside, she was a cheery person that people saw on the screen. Behind the scenes told a far different story. Mayer and her handler were controlling to the point where the homegirl couldn’t breathe. To keep up with filming, the studio often prescribed amphetamines to energize her enough to keep up with the frantic pace of filming one movie after another. To help her sleep, she was prescribed barbiturates. Just think about a 15-year old girl getting all of this for a film. The end result happened where she became addicted to drugs and had a life long battle with them. Then there was a scene where she just wanted to eat some fries, and when she takes one, she gets scolded. If the girl wants some fries, let her eat them damn fries.
Now the film doesn’t go into full-on detail about what Garland went to. Unlike some other biographies, this one really doesn’t show the darker side of Hollywood. You can almost guess what is happening, but you really don’t get it, and in the end, you are somewhat left wondering if Garland had done it to herself. I personally wanted to see some major drama and the roller coaster ride for her. I wanted to see the demons really come out and not hold back. The film alludes to the fact that Mayer was like a Harvey Weinstein type person. Even though he didn’t outright say it, the whole barn scene and asking Garland to come to his place to swim was extremely creepy but almost portrayed Garland as a spoiled brat who didn’t know how great she had it.
I found something about the filming of the Wizard of OZ and Mayer’s personality towards Garland. Mayer and the MGM bosses were worried about any extra weight on the 14-year-old Garland. They would refer to her as a “fat little pig with pigtails.” To combat this thinking, they placed her on an extreme diet that they closely monitored. To maintain her weight, Mayer insisted she consume only chicken soup, black coffee, and cigarettes, along with pills to reduce her appetite. Straight crazy!
I guess the movie comes alive or entertaining when Garland is in London. You really get to see a taste of how messed up she is. She has another wedding that almost makes no sense. Her kids would rather be in LA because it is stable for them, and they don’t want to travel around. She frequently has meltdowns on stage because either she is late to work or some odd problem. When she is on stage and focus, she does a really great job, but sometimes demons make it hard for you to do things consistently.
Renee Zellweger looks completely unrecognizable, and I am not saying that is a bad thing. She completely transformed herself into this role and almost looked like Garland in her later years. Props need to be given to her for that. Zellweger did a great job looking the part and singing the part. I don’t know if it was an Academy Award worthy performance. I felt like she was trying too hard to be the person and not natural at all. In the end, she made the most of it and delivered.
Overall, Judy is one of those biographies that doesn’t live up to what you expect. If you are looking to see some really crazy stuff, you might have to find something else. Zellweger shows her skills as the famous performer and got the Academy Award for Best Actress in this role. Even though the film is flawed in various ways, the ending is spot on with the signing of the famous song, “Somewhere Over.”
