Renee Zellweger Sings as Judy Garland
Friday, May 10, 2019 at 11:15AM The buzz is building fast and loud for Renee Zellweger's performace as Judy Garland in Judy. All we needed was to check the voice. Will she sing or will she lip sync a la Rami Malek? Well without further ado check it out.
This is not an exacting impersonation per se from Renee but rather an interpretation. It's just a few notes from one song...
However it is Garland's signature song "Over the Rainbow" and you can still hear the trembling, the heartbreak, the emotion and Garland herself in that short clip.
The film is based on Peter Quilter’s play End of the Rainbow, adapted for the screen by Tom Edge ( who wrote a few episodes of The Crown) and directed by Rupert Goold (True Story, The Hollow Crown and the current Broadway production Ink). The play was staged in London and Broadway with Tracie Bennett as Judy in a Tony nominated performance. The story takes place in 1968 as Judy arrives in London for her sold-out run at the nightclub Talk of the Town. As she prepares for the show, we see her interact with her fifth husband Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), her manager (Michael Gambon), her ex Sid Luft (Rufus Sewell) and her children (Game of Thrones' Bella Ramsay plays Lorna Luft). It's not a cradle to grave bio-pic but rather just five weeks in Garland's life 30 years after she became a star so we are definately getting her battles with addiction and her struggle to become relevant at the end of her career.
I've seen the Broadway show and it was thrilling and heartbreaking and had Bennett singing all of Garland's famous songs. It's a performance driven story and based on what Zellweger is giving us here there's reason to be excited. And some have already seen the film and are hyping Zellweger's performance. I leave you with the Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye:
Goddess: @patheuk will release #JUDY , director @rupertgoold ‘s much anticipated film set against the backdrop of #JudyGarland ‘s final concerts at the Talk of the Town , in the UK on October 4. #ReneeZellweger ‘s portrait of Garland is a performance for the ages. pic.twitter.com/gYvN91nzAd
— Baz Bamigboye (@BazBam) May 9, 2019
Instead of a Yes, No, Maybe So tell how excited are you on scale on one to ten?
Reader Comments (58)
Puh I'm with @billybil - so difficult ! Love that fact that we get a movie about Judy. Zellweger can be fantastic - but I see Rene all the way in the trailer ... not a lot of Judy. Hathaway I think should have been the choice & voice ! She won her Oscar for a heartbreaking musical number - What went wrong ? Was she to young to play her - usually never an issue in Hollywood ???
Nathaniel will hate this movie sooo much, which probably means nominations for everyone LOL
People seem to be complaining about Reene’s singing, but at that point in 1968, was Garland’s voice still at its best? Know the Live at the Palladium triumph as early 60’s, then her TV show tracks, but what’s the best late 60’s recording barometer to compare JG’s vocals or even that 5 week period?
The movie looks right, but I echo those worried about the vocals. Zellwegger's voice doesn't sound anything like Judy's. We have so many good recordings that capture her vulnerability on track. Not sure what exactly Z's own vocals add to the mix. No one is more vulnerable while singing than JG.
There is one HUGE obstacle this film has in its way - LIFE WITH JUDY GARLAND: ME AND MY SHADOWS in which Judy Davis gave one of the 10 best performances I've ever seen in my life. That is going to be a nearly insurmountable mountain to climb. For the sake of us movie-goers, I hope they come as close as possible.
I agree with Raul: She's spent enough time in surgery.
@Jeff, yes! Judy Davis is sooo phenomenal n heartbreaking as err, Judy in tt TV movie, it's really hard to top tt performance.
Davis swept all the TV awards in tt yr n if it was released as a movie, I'm sure she'd won the Oscar!
Still, I tink we shld give Renee a chance, this looks promising to me so far!! All the finer details r thr
Color me impressed...I think Renee sounds fantastic.