Judy

An especially dire biopic, Judy follows Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) as she attempts to overcome her addiction issues to perform a late-in-her-career set of shows in London. Admittedly, Judy isn’t quite as generic as one might’ve initially feared (ie Garland doesn’t have to think about her whole life before she performs) – with the picture instead coming off as a sluggish and mostly interminable character study. Filmmaker Rupert Goold’s decision to focus on Garland’s low-key, episodic exploits paves the way for a seriously erratic midsection, as Judy’s been suffused with a whole host of time-wasting interludes that prove a serious test to one’s patience. (There’s a whole sequence devoted to Garland’s shopping trip with a friend, for example.) And while the film does boast a small handful of positive attributes – Zellweger’s performance is certainly an eye-opener, to put it mildly – Judy builds to a rather endless third act that ultimately cements its place as a terminally underwhelming true-life tale.

*1/2 out of ****