Review: Judy

The life of Judy Garland has been one that I have been fascinated by. Mainly due to the fact that I have always been intrigued by the life of a child actor, especially as far back as the 1930's.
The way they were treated would be seen these days like slave labour.

Stars like herself, Shirley Temple and Mick Rooney were the big child stars back in the day. But their life behind the camera is one that tries to get avoided being covered in a film. Seeing the release of this had me unsure the route the director and their crew would go.

While I was expecting more of a celebration of Garland actually turned out to be the story that I was not expected and very similar to that of Stan & Ollie from last year.

It moved a long at a solid pace and had a nice amount of comedy to not make the sombre tone completely bleak.

This film is all about Rene Zelwegger's performance. It is one of those transformation type of performances where you see the character and not the actor. From looking like Garland, to sounding like her, Zelwegger certainly did her homework to making the performance feel as authentic as possible.
Outside of Zelwegger, it was great seeing Jessie Buckley be heavily involved with this. After first encountering Buckley in the really good Wild Rose, I was pleased to not only see her be part of a film from a major studio, but play a character with a solid amount of screen-time. Buckley did a good job and very convincing American accent.
Not much else to talk about the acting aspect except for some nice comedic relief from Andy Nyman and Daniel Cerqueira.

Outside of Zelwegger, everything else I felt had a solid execution, never had me feeling bored and felt engaging enough to make it worth my time.

The story might not be considered glamorous, but it is certainly the type of one we seem to be getting in a lot of biopics lately.
Zelwegger is totally worth the admission. She more than carries the film and gives a strong performance that saw her fully absorb into the Judy Garland persona.
What I got from it the most was how much torture and struggle such a beloved film celebrity had during her prime and her latter years.
It might not feature high up in my films of the year list. But Zelwegger's performance is certainly worth a shout of being an awards contender.

Rating: 7/10