Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 01/22/2002
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: 5.1/2
Run Time: 170 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Adult Language, Adult Humor, Substance Abuse (Alcohol, Drugs)
Distributor/Studio: Miramax
From her gradual ascent to stardom in the 1930s to her death from a drug overdose at age 47 in 1969, former vaudeville baby
Frances Ethel Gumm, aka
Judy Garland, endured a string of personal and career ups and downs that continues to color her reputation as an icon whose tragedies outweighed her triumphs. This TV biopic, based on the first half of daughter
Lorna Luft's book
Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir, attempts to humanize
Garland's legend by presenting the singer/actress' story from an insider's point of view.
Tammy Blanchard plays the young
Garland, an
MGM contract player with an overbearing mom (played by
Marsha Mason) who helped push her daughter to stardom -- and, along with studio boss
Louis B. Mayer (
Al Waxman), into a lifelong addiction to booze and barbiturates. From her early performances alongside
Mickey Rooney to her breakthrough role in
The Wizard of Oz,
Life With Judy Garland paints the performer as a sweet kid who just wanted to please her mother, especially after the death of her gentle, beloved father (
Aidan Devine). Australian actress
Judy Davis takes over as the grown-up
Garland as the film traces her five marriages, exile from
MGM, countless film and stage comebacks, and crippling addictions. The film's final section concentrates on the home life of
Luft, her brother
Joey, and their half sister
Liza Minnelli, as the kids and their broke mom moved from one hotel to another and
Luft nursed
Garland through depressions and binges.
Life With Judy Garland premiered in February of 2001 on
ABC, earning Emmy awards for both
Davis and
Blanchard.
~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
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