JUDY

JUDY

* * * * (Don)

* * * * * (Joyce)

(Judy Garland's later life story)

Renee Zellweger is sure to be a top Oscar contender for her portrayal of Judy Garland in the later years of her short life (she died at age 47). Zellweger has Judy down perfectly, complete with her facial tics, mannerisms and voice. She sings all her songs.

There are flashbacks, which show how she was mistreated by her mother and director Louis B. Mayer, and she is eventually fired. Judy puts on her stage face as she fights her demons that eventually take over her, onstage and off. Throughout her life she craved for attention and love, begging the audiences to promise to remember her, with her parting words being, "You won't forget me, will you?"

The time is 1969, and Garland's popularity has waned in the United States, so she heads for London, where she has become an iconic figure, selling out performances at the Talk of the Town dinner club. Judy's erratic behavior becomes a problem for the owners, her handlers, the audiences and herself. Drinking and pills have taken over her life, as she fights for custody of her two children from ex-husband Sid Luft. Insomnia and anorexia do a job on her health.

It is a sad tale, as we are reminded what happens to the little girl who played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

Rated PG-13, with profanity and drug use.