Movie Notes: Wendy And Lucy

January 22nd, 2010

= 5 stars

Starring Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Wally Dalton
Directed by Kelly Reichardt

Synopsis

Enroute to Alaska, Wendy’s (Michelle  Williams) car breaks down in Oregon, setting off a chain of unfortunate events where she becomes separated from her dog, Lucy.

The Good

• Little information is given about Wendy, but this is a smart move, creating an interesting situation: imagine a stranger walking up to you, saying they were down on their luck and needed some help. My initial instinct would be one of distrust, and I had this same initial feeling about Wendy, due to not knowing much about her: it’s her own fault for getting in this situation — why should anyone help? But the more time spent with the character, my feelings shifted to sympathy. Afterward, I found myself reflecting on my initial lack of empathy.
• Wendy’s difficulty with money (she makes a bad choice to shoplift, and can’t afford to repair her car), captures the difficult, helpless feeling where trying to get ahead financially just results in falling further behind. It’s all too easy to believe the poor brought problems upon themselves. This is a more subtle, poetic version of The Pursuit Of Happyness, and highly applicable to our continuing, recessionary times of unemployment and evictions slamming the middle class and below.
• The combination of the two points above results in a minimalism oddly similar to Rescue Dawn, where an American POW escapes through a Laotian jungle. Instead of a wilderness, Wendy is trapped economically, in a land of plenty she has no access to. While Rescue Dawn contains a determined, obsessive performance from Christian Bale, Wendy And Lucy has a core performance (Williams) portraying determination in a much different manner — her eyes show a steely persistence laced with unfair shame, as being broke in America can be a social crime of the worst order. Bale’s POW seems driven to survive because he is oblivious to his reality, while Wendy is all too aware of her situation.
• Lucy the dog — perhaps symbolic of responsibility or something you have within yourself.

The Bad

• Starkly minimal, indie, and at times nothing seems to happen. I was mesmerized, but I could see some harder souls never relating to Wendy’s predicament.

Conclusion

Personally, Wendy And Lucy hit all the right notes. It captures that burdensome feeling of being trapped in America with options running out, all too common during this time of economic stagnation. I also found myself confronting personal assumptions about the poor and transient. 5 stars.

IMDB: Wendy And Lucy
Wikipedia: Wendy And Lucy
Rotten Tomatoes: Wendy And Lucy 84%