Renee Zellweger portrays Judy Garland near the end of her life in Rupert Goold's big-screen adaptation of a play by Peter Quilter.
, a look at the last year in the life of Judy Garland. Since this year is the 50anniversary of her death, an event that precipitated the Stonewall riots in the summer of 1969, the filmmakers undoubtedly recognized that they had a built-in marketing angle, in addition to the enduring appeal of Garland’s name and music. Director Rupert Goold’s movie sometimes stumbles, but it made one indispensable choice in finding the right actress to channel the diva.
The film is based on a play by Peter Quilter, which focused on those final months of Garland’s career. In a misguided effort to make the material more cinematic, and perhaps as a nod to the current fad of nonlinear storytelling, the film interrupts the compelling narrative with flashbacks to Garland’s days on the MGM lot, when Louis B. Mayer and his cohorts got her hooked on pills and robbed her of her childhood.
The actress looks uncannily like Garland while always remaining Renee Zellweger as well. She captures sides of Garland’s personality that not everyone acknowledges, particularly her self-deprecating sense of humor. When Deans meets her at a party, he makes a fawning comment about “the greatest entertainer in the world,” and Garland surveys the room and asks, “Is Frank Sinatra here?”
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