Wendy and Lucy (2009)

Wonderful Movie

Great Film overall

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

You can see Wendy is bummed about life from the very beginning. Only a young adult, yet her walk is lethargic, eyes dead pan, face managing to both carry the weight of the world and move not a muscle. It's all she can do to keep it together while road tripping to Alaska in search of employment, but whatever vestige of control she has gets wrestled from her in a small town somewhere in pretty Oregon. Her car breaks down, she is arrested for shoplifting from the supermarket, during which time Lucy, her dog and only companion, goes missing. As she searches for Lucy, and tries to get the issues with her car sorted, Wendy's bleakness becomes the films bleakness, and we can hardly crack a smile despite some of the well captured idiosyncrasies of the characters she meets - a saint of a carpark security guard, with naught to do all day but stand around with his hands in his pockets, and a mechanic who places bets over the phone. If the film has one grave mistake it is to paint her irrational character in a sympathetic light, whilst painting the rational world around her as oppressive. Should we really sympathise with a shoplifter? Only if she is the victim, and shoplifting her only way out. But although she's in a difficult situation, Wendy is not nearly as victimised as the film attempts to portray her. She had money to pay for those goods, but made the decision not to, and it was her choice to travel hundreds of miles in a bunk car with a limited budget to begin with. Furthermore, we are not even given a backstory to understand how she came to such a bleak outlook, making it even more difficult to sympathise. Because we are human we feel for her sadness, but this alone does not a great film make. If the film has a second grave flaw, its that it is very slow, and so unapologetically dour, that it becomes tedious to sit through. It's a shame it doesn't have a much shorter edit, for the 16mm well lends the subject matter an inviting, personal feel.

On her way to Alaska where she hopes to find a job, young Wendy stops off in a small town in Oregon. She is travelling with her dog, Lucy, the only being who truly cares for her, and the only one that she cares for. But money runs short after a series of incidents, and Lucy disappears. From such an unexciting, not to say banal, premise, Reichardt creates a neorealist film for 21st-century America. By simply observing the harsh reality of unemployment, homelessness and the absence of healthcare, she avoids all sentimentalism to leave only the raw emotions emanating from an encounter with unfairness in a very real world. Similarly, Wendy barely cries at all despite her hardships – she only accepts other people's help with great resignation. She is at odds with her environment, a small figure against a grand background. She is rarely photographed at the centre of the frame, except when she is with Lucy. Circumstances have no compassion, but this film is about how Wendy is strong enough to accept them.

Wendy Carroll (Michelle Williams) is driving to Alaska with limited cash and her dog Lucy. Her car breaks down. She tries to steal some dog food and gets caught. She had tied Lucy up in front of the grocery store. When she returns from getting arrested, Lucy is gone. There is a friendly security guard. Lucy isn't at the pound. Bill the mechanic (Will Patton) charges Wendy the few bucks she has left.This is a generally slow movie. There are instances of harrowing tension. There is some tension hoping for good things but expecting bad things to happen to Wendy. It's a series of bad things with some poignant moments. The ending is a little weak. With the way things are going for Wendy, I expect the ending to be a lot more heart-breaking and a lot more final. Riding off into the sunset isn't definitive enough.

I made a solo journey of my own in the summer of 2007. Unlike Wendy, I was on a bicycle, and didn't bring a dog. But I did break down more than once, and found myself in an unknown place at the mercy (and otherwise) of strangers. This is a story of that frightening feeling of finding yourself out on the road without anyone to turn to, including even yourself. But this isn't a thriller or a horror film. "Wendy and Lucy" is about friendship, fleeting human contact and the search for something better. It's the perfect strangers that make travel hard, and worth it.There's not a definable plot to this film, just solo travel and what it's like. And I know all too well that this here is it. Michelle Williams is the closest I've ever gotten to watching myself. It's not a mirror of your finer points, but rather who you become when you lose your peace and sense of humor. When things get too hard to smile through, and hope is what slips through your fingers instead of what you once held tight. If you sit back and absorb the purity, the humanity, the quiet, the scenes begin to speak to you. It's a hard thing, it's a good thing, it's alive.