As good as Goold

Rupert Goold’s snapshot of Judy Garland’s last days is funny and heart- breaking in equal measures

JUDY

Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock, Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell

How has it taken Hollywood this long to make a Judy Garland biopic? Judy Davis absolutely slayed in the part in a 2001 mini- series, which perhaps put other p eople off trying — but even by then, it was well past due. Stage direct or Rupert Goold’s film is worth the wait, but it’s also sensibly small: rather than attempting a vast, cradle- to- grave epic of Garland’s life story, Judy focuses intimately and poignantly on her final months, when a last- ditch concert engagement in London displayed both the gifts that had made her Tinseltown’s greatest show- woman and the personal baggage that had left her career in tatters. Zellweger is an unlikely choice for the part, but it’s her best work in years: heartrending and tartly funny as she channels both the brassiness and fragility that fought each other in Judy’s diminutive, sequin- clad frame. See p56. 2 October