Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows

Lorna Luft wrote and produced this epic tale of her mother Judy Garland's often-tragic life in the spotlight.

Frances Gumm starts her life out becoming an actress and singer. She changes her name to Judy Garland and signs a contract with MGM studios who promise her a big break.

That break comes in the form of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard Of Oz. But fame comes at a price. Addictions to drugs and alcohol plus failed marriages and piles of debt leave Judy sprialling out of control.

It's the touching true story of Judy Garland. From her humble beginnings to her dramatic end, this is quite simply, brilliant.

Tammy Blanchard, who plays the younger Judy Garland is so much like her, it's not even funny - and her acting is fantastic, also. 9/1O

Judy Davis gets the Emmy for this one. Beyond belief performance. Not since Ben Kingsley in "Gandhi" have I seen anyone inhabit a real-life based character the way Davis does here. A career high note. Hate to say it..but this movie really deserved a theatrical release. It's almost too big for TV. Hats off to ABC either way. Great direction by Ackerman. The attention payed to the nuances is surreal. Blink..and you'll swear you're watching the real deal. Solid support from Victor Garber and Alison Pill as a young Lorna Luft. And Tammy Blanchard just bought herself a career. Wave bye-bye to "The Guiding Light", Tammy. Your boat has just sailed.

There has to be some sort of cosmic yin-yang Zen supernatural otherworldly force at work here that placed one "Judy" in the ruby slippers of another to this effect. There is no other handy explanation. A star is born (Blanchard) and another one goes into supernova (Davis). This is great moviemaking. Now, get this sucker to video where I can watch it without commercial interruptions.

As TV biopics go, this is the best I've ever seen. Most of the credit, if not all, must go to the extraordinary Judy Davis. She claims she wasn't all that familiar with Judy Garland, well she could've fool me and she did. I was allowed in without making me feel like a voyeur. There is a sense of fairness about the tragic - yes, tragic - tale of the biggest entertainment performer the world has ever known. What makes Judy Garland so compelling is her unmistakable humanity and her moments of self awareness that come to attack her rather than reassure her. An artist treated like a commodity from day one and that shouldn't come as a big surprise but it does because we see it reflected in Judy's eyes (Garland or Davis, it doesn't matter) I believed it, and what's most remarkable of all, I understood it.

Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows is the penultimate of made-for-TV biopics. Both Judy Davis and Tammy Blanchard do fine jobs portraying the legendary singer/actress Judy Garland. Based on daughter Lorna Luft's loving paean to her mother, this is a warm, poignant, buoyant motion picture for the small screen. The re-creation of "Meet Me in St. Louis" is eerily exacting, it's like watching a documentary of the film. Davis quite simply glows as the doomed Judy. Old pro Marsha Mason has the unenviable role of mother Ethel Gumm, and quite convincingly too. This movie was televised five years ago, but it still haunts me. Even Judy would have been proud of this masterful television production. Kudos to all.

There have been a lot of show business biographies put on film, but for the most part, they are sketchy and fictionalized. Judy Garland was a show business legend, who even though much has been written about her, a definitive film biography has alluded us. An NBC TV movie was made in the 80's called RAINBOW, but it only covered Garland's childhood to the time she was cast in THE WIZARD OF OZ. At long last, we finally were gifted with a surprisingly factual and lavishly produced TV movie called LIFE WITH JUDY GARLAND: ME AND MY SHADOWS, a two-part mini-series which chronicles Garland's life from her first audition for MGM to her tragic death in 1969. Most show biz biopics tend to fictionalize material for dramatic effect or lack of knowledge of the facts, but I trust the facts presented here because there are several events recreated here that I have actually heard Garland herself talk about in interviews. Some things are omitted and/ or glossed over (Her first marriage to David Rose is barely mentioned), but when you only have 2 hours and 45 minutes to tell the story, some fact-trimming is necessary. The filmmakers wisely chose two actresses to play the teenage and adult Garland. Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis both won Emmys for their work as young Frances Gumm and the adult Judy Garland. Davis, in particular, is astonishing in a powerhouse performance that just gets richer and more complex upon repeat viewings. Another wise decision to dub original Garland recordings for Davis' singing voice further enhances the power of the piece. I read that prior to shooting, Davis watched every movie Garland made and as much concert footage as she could get her hands on and her homework pays off in spades here. Her recreations of "The Trolley Song" from MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS and "The Man that Got Away" from A STAR IS BORN are positively spooky. Victor Garber gives the performance of his career as Judy's volatile third husband, Sid Luft. Hugh Laurie is a little too masculine as Judy's 2nd hubby, Vincente Minnelli, whose rumored bisexuality prior to meeting Judy is part of Hollywood folklore. There is also solid work from Sonja Smits and John Benjamin Hickey as Judy's good friends, Kay Thompson and Roger Edens and by Dwayne Addams as a young Mickey Rooney. There is also a memorable turn from Marhsa Mason as Ethel Gumm, Judy's hard-nosed mother. A hauntingly accurate look at the tragic life of, arguably, Hollywood's greatest creation, whose very human troubles never allowed her to live up to the creation.