I can't say I'm Judy Garland fan, but I've always been fascinated by her story. While this film doesn't exactly do the story justice -- how could it in 2-1/2 hours? -- it does offer two performances that you'd almost SWEAR were by Judy herself.
Lots here that's familiar (drugs, drugs, and more drugs) and very little that's not, but it's all done in such a way that if you'd never heard of Judy, you'd have an excellent idea of what she was about just from watching this.
I have to agree with the many people who said that Judy Davis took over the role way too early in the film -- it's pretty unsettling to see young, dewy Judy morph into nervous neurotic Judy so quickly. My only other complaint is that while Hugh Laurie gave a fine performance as Vincente Minelli, he looks NOTHING like him. Odd that they strained so hard to get the actresses playing Judy to look like and move like Judy, but didn't extend the same care to the rest of the cast, or at least with those we're familiar with, i.e. while most of us probably couldn't pick Roger Edens out of a lineup, I think most film fans know what Vincente Minelli looked like.
Judy's story is meaty enough that the network should have made a much longer film -- maybe more of a four- or five-episode miniseries. I'm sure it would have paid off in a big way, and we could have seen fully developed scenes of events which are just hinted at in this film.
Lots here that's familiar (drugs, drugs, and more drugs) and very little that's not, but it's all done in such a way that if you'd never heard of Judy, you'd have an excellent idea of what she was about just from watching this.
I have to agree with the many people who said that Judy Davis took over the role way too early in the film -- it's pretty unsettling to see young, dewy Judy morph into nervous neurotic Judy so quickly. My only other complaint is that while Hugh Laurie gave a fine performance as Vincente Minelli, he looks NOTHING like him. Odd that they strained so hard to get the actresses playing Judy to look like and move like Judy, but didn't extend the same care to the rest of the cast, or at least with those we're familiar with, i.e. while most of us probably couldn't pick Roger Edens out of a lineup, I think most film fans know what Vincente Minelli looked like.
Judy's story is meaty enough that the network should have made a much longer film -- maybe more of a four- or five-episode miniseries. I'm sure it would have paid off in a big way, and we could have seen fully developed scenes of events which are just hinted at in this film.