On the heels of musical bio pics like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman comes Judy, a look at Judy Garland in 1968 as she arrives in London for a series of sold-out concerts. Taking on this considerable hurdle of a role is Renée Zellweger, gamely ready to dive into the rough final days of a legend’s life. As this flashy new teaser trailer shows, Judy will not only include scenes with Garland’s three kids (Liza Minelli and Lorna and Joey Luft) and her fifth and final husband, Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), but (unsurprisingly) will also include some flashbacks to Garland’s glory days at MGM.
While Zellweger certainly pulls off the look of latter-day Garland, as well as certain hand gestures and head tilts, the choice to score the teaser with her version of Garland’s most famous song is a bit of a head-scratcher. Thanks to Chicago, we know that Zellweger can sing, but her “Over The Rainbow” is a pale imitation of Garland’s original. Granted, that’s an extremely high bar, and maybe Zellweger’s rendition aims to show just how far the star had fallen by this point. After all, we had our doubts about her Bridget Jones casting at first, and look how that turned out.
Judy is scheduled to open in September.