Judy

I only know Judy Garland as Dorothy in Wizard of Oz - and that is the extent of my Garland knowledge in terms of her filmography. I’ve read bits and pieces of her life in Hollywood - the pills, the long hours, the scrutiny because she was a Hollywood darling - but I wasn’t really sure what happened to her after her childhood years. I did end up reading her wikipedia page, and to be honest, her page was a bit similar to watching the film. (Spoilers)

The film focuses on Judy’s last years as a performer interspersed with her teen years as an actress. Judy has been divorced many times, is homeless and in debt, taking her chances in London in order to provide for her children. She was also in the receiving end of substance abuse, always with a drink in hand. She was also difficult to work with; she was late, she was drunk, she had a lot of complaints about everything. However, despite all her fuss, once she was thrusted into the spotlight, she was a star. Judy Garland was a performer at heart. She was the performer everyone was enthralled with, that it didn’t really matter about the woman outside the stage. She was a beloved performer, and that was that. 

The film did show her more general issues - the ones everyone knows about - but nothing much else behind the shell of the person. We get scenes of how torturous people in show business treated her, and that her mindset has been tweaked to think of everyone just taking advantage of her because she is a commodity. Everyone in her life seemed to ignore all the warning signs in her life because of her name, with people simply going along with her antics because she brings in the money. There were moments where she was alone or was in some state, and while it’s supposed to show us the humanity of Judy in a world of fame, we don’t really get much understanding from the mindset of the actress. 

One factor that can be derived from the biopic is that Hollywood has made her who she was. She was given substances to adjust her mechanisms - when she was young, it was pills, switched to alcohol during her older years. She was someone who was sabotaged by so many people, that the well-intentioned part of her couldn’t salvage what was left of her. She was someone who was emotionally manipulated as a child, so she found the affection she was looking for through the only way she knew: by being the Judy Garland. Scenes of her looking for affection were evident throughout the film - marrying her husband on a whim because he adored her, joining a couple for dinner because they adored her, always communicating with the people waiting for her by the theater because they adored her. She needed that companionship, that need for acceptance, and was given none of that when she wasn’t performing. 

In terms of showing a biopic, the film did present a detailed background of Garland’s life, only choosing to showcase two aspects to contain storytelling. It did compliment each other because it provided scenarios whose effects are similar to both points of life - despite her age and fame, she was still in the same situation, and that her life only seems to go in a loop. Renee Zellweger gave a fantastic performance at Garland in her later years. However, the film was a bit distant in the treatment of Garland’s story. I didn’t get much emotion from it, even from the scene that I think the film was counting on to be its big moment. I really thought that scene was supposed to pack this big emotional punch to culminate the entire experience Garland has gone through. It had everything - the song choice, the audience who weren’t jaded with the persona Garland has been projecting, the wonderful performance of Zellweger, but it just fell short. 

All in all, it has the formula a biopic is composed of, and it did make you think of Garland’s state behind the scene, but the treatment of the story was a bit surface level. It could have used more depth and warmth, considering the other factors of her life.