THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RAINBOW (JUDY)

During last year's awards season, BBC Films gave us a tale of two Hollywood icons in the late autumn of their careers enjoying one last hurrah in Britain and Ireland.

For this year's awards season, guess what?

BBC Films has given us a tale of a Hollywood icon in the late autumn of her career enjoying a last hurrah in London.

Despite good performances from Steve Coogan and John C Reilly as 'Stan and Ollie', Jon S Baird's film failed to cut through during last year's awards season.

A different fate would appear, however, to be awaiting Rupert Goold's 'Judy', with its star, Renee Zellweger widely expected to walk away with the Oscar tonight for Best Actress.

Goold's film, penned by Tom Edge, is a melancholic look at the dimming of a Hollywood star.

At the start of the film, Zellweger's Judy Garland is turfed out of her luxury hotel suite, where she lives with her children, Bella Ramsey's Lorna Luft and Lewin Lloyd's Joey.

Her eviction is down to unpaid bills.

Reluctantly, she heads to the home of her ex-husband, Rufus Sewell's Sidney Luft to ensure the kids have a place to stay while she figures out how to get herself out of a financial pickle.

As her children sleep, she goes to a party where she meets Finn Wittrock's nightclub owner Mickey Deans who fancies himself as a bit of a music entrepreneur and he flirts with her.

However, after advice from an agent, Judy heads to London where there is the chance to earn some lucrative earnings from a public that still adores her.

Leaving her daughter and son behind with Sidney, Judy arrives in the British capital and is assigned by Michael Gambon's showbiz impresario Bernard Delfont a minder, Jessie Buckley's Rosalyn Wilder.

Judy's cabaret shows are a hit but during the run it becomes clear that Rosalyn has her work cut out for her, as the star's propensity for pill popping and booze starts to impact on her performances.

And then there's the arrival of Mickey Deans in London who starts to talk a big game about Judy's future career.

Goold and Edge don't just concentrate on the downward slide in Garland's career but attempt to backfill the story with flashbacks to her experiences as a young studio star and the making of her most celebrated film 'The Wizard of Oz'.

At the start, we see the young Judy, played with wide eyed innocence by Darci Shaw, being bullied by Richard Cordery's studio head Louis B Meyer who threatens her with the prospect of Shirley Temple taking the role of Dorothy.

The back story they tell sheds a disturbing light on the control Meyer and his studio exerted over Garland.

Effectively a slave to the studio, we are told she was not allowed to eat anything other than chicken soup in order that they could keep her thin.

In one sequence when she is in a diner, supposedly dating Gus Barry's Mickey Rooney for the Hollywood paparazzi to capture, she is forbidden to eat a burger and is given a pill instead.

Goold's film is at its most effective during these sequences and, in this age of #MeToo, the relationship between Meyer and Judy is depicted as downright creepy.

The execution of the main storyline, however, is more dot to dot, pretty much following the arc of every other rock bottom showbiz tale you have probably seen before.

Zellweger is good value for money as Judy Garland and is brilliantly made up to resemble the star.

It is a great impersonation in much the same way that Meryl Streep's Oscar winning turn as Margaret Thatcher in 'The Iron Lady' was a great impersonation.

But it isn't enough to sustain a rather creaky film.

As 'Judy' rattles along, Goold's uneven film rarely rises above being a sorry tale of addiction and exploitation.

It only occasionally sparks into life and you are left craving something more substantial.

That is not to say there are not good things about the film.

Visually, it is a vibrant confection.

Credit should go to film's Director of Photography, Ole Bratt Birkeland who does a great job lighting the movie.

Kave Quinn should be commended too for the production design, as should the art directors, James Price and Tilly Scandrett.

Jany Temine's striking costumes also catch the eye and the make up and hairstyling team should be applauded.

As for the cast, Jessie Buckley again impresses as Rosalyn whose sheer professionalism is challenged by her star's problems with drug and alcohol addiction 

With the twitch of the mouth or a mere glance, Buckley skillfully lets her character's emotions pierce through the steely professional armour.

Royce Pierreson impresses too as Burt, the genial musical director of Garland's London show.

And Darci Shaw does a good job handling the most unsettling moments in Goold's film as the young Garland.

There are amusing turns too by Andy Hyman and Daniel Cerqueira as two adoring gay fans who get to treat Judy after one show in their apartment by making her an omelette.

Gambon, Sewell and Wittrock, however, underwhelm in sketchily written roles.

But the writing isn't completely at fault.

While the film looks suffucently glitzy, occasionally it is let down by some obvious lip synching during the concert sequences.

And when Goold's movie reaches its conclusion, you cannot help feeling 'Stan and Ollie' was a much better film. 

Taken together with the 2017 Gloria Grahame drama 'Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool', you come to the conclusion that it is now time that the "celebs on the slide" British movie genre is given a much needed rest.

They and us deserve better.

('Judy' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on October 2, 2019 and on DVD and streaming services on February 3, 2020)