JUDY
****
Director: Rupert Goold
Screenwriter: Tom Edge, based on the stage play ‘End of the Rainbow’ by Peter Quilter.
Principal cast:
Renée Zellweger
Jessie Buckley
Finn Wittrock
Rufus Sewell
Michael Gambon
Bella Ramsey
Country: UK
Classification: M
Runtime: 118 mins.
Australian release date: 10 October 2019
Previewed at: Universal Theatrette, Sydney, on 26 September 2019.
Rupert Goold, the director of Richard II, the first part of series one of the BBC’s magnificent Shakespearean cycle The Hollow Crown (2012), turns his hand to another kind of royalty in Judy. This drama stems from theatrical origins, too, in this case Peter Quilter’s End of the Rainbow, which premiered to much acclaim at the Sydney Opera House in 2005 with Caroline O’Connor in the lead role of Judy Garland. Now, Quilter’s play has been expanded upon by Tom Edge, who has broadened the story to include flashbacks of Garland’s early years as a child actor in Hollywood. This larger scenario also helps to make the audience understand just why this great singer developed a reputation as a tragic figure who could not be relied upon to step up to the crease night after night.
Judy begins in 1968 when Garland (a truly captivating performance by Renée Zellweger) is down on her luck, reduced to singing in small venues in Los Angeles with her children, Lorna (Bella Ramsey) and Joey (Lewin Lloyd), included in the act. Turned away from a hotel one night, she’s forced to take the kids to their father’s place (Rufus Sewell plays Sid Luft). It’s not a happy arrangement, given that she’s in the throes of divorcing Luft and he wants custody of their children because of her drinking and self-medicating. England seems to be the last place that still respects and loves her so, in early 1969, when she is offered a lucrative five-week contract at London’s The Talk of the Town nightclub, Garland has little choice but to accept, even though it means leaving Lorna and Joey with their father in California. Goold’s film focuses on this period, during which she married her fifth husband, Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), but it also includes scenes relating to the singer’s formative years (Darci Shaw plays the young Judy) under the tutelage of Louis B. Mayer (Richard Cordery). It seems the studio boss monstered the girl, robbing her of her childhood and employing a guardian to control her diet with amphetamines. Small wonder the singer turned to ‘chemical crutches’ to assist her throughout the remainder of her life.
Edge’s screenplay is very good, managing to show the difficulty of handling Garland’s abuse of alcohol and pills while simultaneously empathising with the suffering of a lonely woman and mother. He says, “I didn’t know much about her – if anything I carried with me the cliché of Garland. But as I began watching her TV interviews from the late 1960s, I quickly saw that this was someone who was really warm, witty, sharp and self-aware – someone who knew what the clichéd view of her was and who was prepared to play with that.” His script also reveals the depth of love that her fans felt for her (remember, the film is set in the last months of a 40-plus year career) and there is a particularly poignant scene where she shares a home-cooked meal with a couple of her gay devotees. Zellweger is a tour-de-force, capturing every mannerism of Garland but never becoming a parody. The way she carries herself, the stoop of her shoulders, the way she holds her mouth, all convey the weight of simply being Judy Garland, ‘Hollywood star’, and how heavy that load must have felt. And, boy, can she sing! It will be a travesty of justice if her name isn’t in the final five on Oscar night.
Judy probably won’t break any box office records because younger audiences are unlikely to be aware of Judy Garland’s long-lasting, glittering career, but anyone who knows and loves her voice, songs and movies should flock to the cinema for this film. They will be amply rewarded.
Screenwriter: Tom Edge, based on the stage play ‘End of the Rainbow’ by Peter Quilter.
Principal cast:
Renée Zellweger
Jessie Buckley
Finn Wittrock
Rufus Sewell
Michael Gambon
Bella Ramsey
Country: UK
Classification: M
Runtime: 118 mins.
Australian release date: 10 October 2019
Previewed at: Universal Theatrette, Sydney, on 26 September 2019.
Rupert Goold, the director of Richard II, the first part of series one of the BBC’s magnificent Shakespearean cycle The Hollow Crown (2012), turns his hand to another kind of royalty in Judy. This drama stems from theatrical origins, too, in this case Peter Quilter’s End of the Rainbow, which premiered to much acclaim at the Sydney Opera House in 2005 with Caroline O’Connor in the lead role of Judy Garland. Now, Quilter’s play has been expanded upon by Tom Edge, who has broadened the story to include flashbacks of Garland’s early years as a child actor in Hollywood. This larger scenario also helps to make the audience understand just why this great singer developed a reputation as a tragic figure who could not be relied upon to step up to the crease night after night.
Judy begins in 1968 when Garland (a truly captivating performance by Renée Zellweger) is down on her luck, reduced to singing in small venues in Los Angeles with her children, Lorna (Bella Ramsey) and Joey (Lewin Lloyd), included in the act. Turned away from a hotel one night, she’s forced to take the kids to their father’s place (Rufus Sewell plays Sid Luft). It’s not a happy arrangement, given that she’s in the throes of divorcing Luft and he wants custody of their children because of her drinking and self-medicating. England seems to be the last place that still respects and loves her so, in early 1969, when she is offered a lucrative five-week contract at London’s The Talk of the Town nightclub, Garland has little choice but to accept, even though it means leaving Lorna and Joey with their father in California. Goold’s film focuses on this period, during which she married her fifth husband, Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), but it also includes scenes relating to the singer’s formative years (Darci Shaw plays the young Judy) under the tutelage of Louis B. Mayer (Richard Cordery). It seems the studio boss monstered the girl, robbing her of her childhood and employing a guardian to control her diet with amphetamines. Small wonder the singer turned to ‘chemical crutches’ to assist her throughout the remainder of her life.
Edge’s screenplay is very good, managing to show the difficulty of handling Garland’s abuse of alcohol and pills while simultaneously empathising with the suffering of a lonely woman and mother. He says, “I didn’t know much about her – if anything I carried with me the cliché of Garland. But as I began watching her TV interviews from the late 1960s, I quickly saw that this was someone who was really warm, witty, sharp and self-aware – someone who knew what the clichéd view of her was and who was prepared to play with that.” His script also reveals the depth of love that her fans felt for her (remember, the film is set in the last months of a 40-plus year career) and there is a particularly poignant scene where she shares a home-cooked meal with a couple of her gay devotees. Zellweger is a tour-de-force, capturing every mannerism of Garland but never becoming a parody. The way she carries herself, the stoop of her shoulders, the way she holds her mouth, all convey the weight of simply being Judy Garland, ‘Hollywood star’, and how heavy that load must have felt. And, boy, can she sing! It will be a travesty of justice if her name isn’t in the final five on Oscar night.
Judy probably won’t break any box office records because younger audiences are unlikely to be aware of Judy Garland’s long-lasting, glittering career, but anyone who knows and loves her voice, songs and movies should flock to the cinema for this film. They will be amply rewarded.