Wendy and Lucy

Succinctly and mourningly poetic
Michelle Williams delivers a very understated performance as a down-on-her-luck Wendy, who brings her loyal dog, Lucy, along with her to a journey for a supposed prosperity. It is a very quiet and subtle performance that, Wendy, with little money and no dog food, and an incident which prompts her to lose Lucy, meshes along with her surroundings: a dry and monotone small town, where the sun shines to merely beat down the lumbering, sluggish skins of the inhabitants.This is a very important work, especially in light of today's economic situation: "You need an address to get an address, and you need a job to get a job." succinctly says the kind-hearted security guard who provides help to Wendy during her descent into financial and emotional ruins. "Wendy and Lucy", directed by Kelly Reichardt, emphasizes the many possibilities that are available to an individual by virtue of how everything could be wiped away by being in a little mishap that triggers a chain of unfortunate events, each...

A heartbreaking portrayal of true suffering...
Sometimes simple can say so much, and that is the case with this independent gem. `Wendy and Lucy' quite simple tells the story of Wendy and Lucy, a young woman and her dog. Wendy is virtually homeless, sleeping in her car as she makes her way to Alaska where she feels her life will be better. Lucy is her faithful `yellow gold' dog who sticks by her side and proves to be the only sunlight in Wendy's life. The film opens with Wendy and Lucy walking through the woods playing fetch as a consistent and almost tranquil hum embeds itself in our ears and it is that simple imagery that tells us all we need to know about Wendy.

Without Lucy, she is lost.

The film doesn't have much plot depth, for it can be summed up in one sentence:

"Wendy loses Lucy and desperately tries to find her."

Trying to cast the film off as nothing more than that though is a shame, since despite the shallow plot points the film has such rich depth of character here. The...

Simple Story Packs a Punch
'Wendy and Lucy' is the story of a young woman who, while traveling from Indiana to Alaska in hopes of a new life, gets stranded in Portland, Oregon, and loses her dog, Lucy. It's a timely story of loneliness and sacrifice directed expertly by Kelly Reichardt and acted beautifully by Michelle Williams, whose screen presence is overwhelmingly vulnerable. While many may accuse this film of being too nuanced or too quiet to the point of boredom, I implore you to see it for yourself. It's not like this is a silent film. There is dialogue, and it isn't even sparse. Whenever there is no dialogue, the film is still involving all the way up to its heartbreaking final scene. I honestly had no expectations going into this film. I like Michelle Williams and thought it'd be an interesting film to say the least. I was wrong-so wrong-it's way more than that. There hasn't been a film that has made me sob, not just tear up but sob like a baby, in a LONG time, maybe ever. This is one film that will...

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