” You can’t get an address without an address. You can’t get a job without a job. The whole system is fixed.”
Cutting right to the chase, Wendy and Lucy is easily one of the best films of 2008. With a budget of $300,000 and a scant runtime of 80 minutes, Wendy and Lucy still rings more truth and emotion than films with three times the length and thirty times the budget.
Wendy (Michelle Williams) embarks on a journey to Alaska in hopes of finding work in the fishing canneries. Wendy only has a couple hundred bucks in her pocket and her faithful dog, Lucy, in tow. The trip takes a turn for the worse when her beat-up Honda breaks down in a small town in Oregon. Living off the grid, Wendy has no cell phone or credit card and her meager funds are dwindled by one bad break after another. A mechanic (Will Patton) charges her $30 to tow her car to his garage even though it’s parked right by the curb. Wendy gets caught shoplifting and hauled down to the police station; leaving Lucy tied in front of the grocery store. After paying a $50 fine, Wendy returns to find Lucy gone and spends the next couple days searching for her. Wendy finds one kind soul in a security guard (Wally Dalton) who works the beat at a Walgreen’s parking lot.
Wendy and Lucy is a less-romanticized version of Into the Wild and an ideal example of minimalist filmmaking. Writer/Director Kelly Reichardt stays away from extraneous trappings to cut right to the heart and gives us a modern American answer to Vittorio Di Sica’s Bicycle Thieves. Originally intended as a comment on post-Katrina America, Reichardt manages to create a timely picture that sums up the current economical turmoil. This is the struggle of the people who have slipped through the cracks of today’s society.
Reichardt is unobtrusive with the camera and paints a melancholy picture of small-town life. She lets the camera linger from a distance in the film’s opening shot where Wendy plays fetch with Lucy in the woods. The film’s score is a simple tune written by Will Oldham (who makes a cameo appearance) that is hummed periodically by Michelle Williams. She cements her status as one of the best young actresses working today. Yes, she goes through the process of de-glamorizing that Oscar voters always love. She slept in her car and didn’t wash her hair or shave her legs for two weeks. But, her performance is more than just a greasy hairdo. It is a touching and painful turn. Most importantly, it feels real.
Some will argue that we aren’t ever given a firm reason as to who Wendy is and why she is making this journey. But, why should every movie spell every little detail out for you? Wendy and Lucy is essentially the second act in the life of Wendy and Lucy. We don’t know what happened before and we won’t know what happens to them after. Much like the townsfolk she runs into, we only meet Wendy during the middle of her passage. That’s more than enough for me.
In Wendy and Lucy, Wendy faces something far worse than cruelty, indifference. The film accentuates the importance of how our tiniest actions can have tremendous impact on the lives of strangers. This is a must-see film that is well worth less than an hour and a half of your time.
Rating: ****
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