I was watching this with one ear this morning while I was getting ready for work. Just wondering if anyone knows if this is considered to be an accurate portrayal of her life. I know Davis was praised for her performance, but I don’t remember if the content was considered factual or doctored up for dramatic effect. Anyone?
The events in the movie jibed fairly well with the broad outline of the events of her life as presented in various biographies. However, much of the film was based on Lorna Luft’s memoir, and necessarily Luft had to rely on non-primary sources for events that happened before she was born. Garland was also fairly notorious for, let us say, embellishing for dramatic purposes the events in her own life (some of her embellishments have become the accepted version) so even the stories that came directly from Garland are suspect. And any biopic is going to have changes made to the story for dramatic effect, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen it so I couldn’t name any examples off the top of my head.
Judy Davis was amazing in the role of the adult Garland, but also praiseworthy was Tammy Blanchard as the young Garland.
One big omission was Judy Garland’s entire first marriage, to musician David Rose, 1941-1945. Lorna Luft only mentions it in passing in her narration.
I don’t know from accuracy, but Judy Davis?
Don’t get me wrong, I like her; great actress. But Jerry Orbach looks more like Judy Garland than Judy Davis does.
Toni Colette, on the other hand, sometimes looks a LOT like Judy Garland. And I’ve seen shots of Hilary Swank that made me do a Judy Garland doubletake. But definitely not Judy Davis.
Judy Davis looks like Garland’s double in many to most of the scenes. And MAN! she’s awesome in this movie.