Movie Review - 'Wendy and Lucy'

Wendy and Lucy Starring Michelle Williams and Will Patton Directed by Kelly Reichardt Rated R

Michelle Williams gives a subtle, beautiful performance in Wendy and Lucy as a young woman traveling north to find her true calling, when all along the one thing that mattered in her life was right by her side. Williams plays Wendy, and Lucy is her dog. They're driving across country, or around the country, with Alaska as a final destination. We get the sense that Wendy is just wandering from one final destination to the next. She has come from Indiana, and we know she visited Utah at one point, and now she's in Oregon. That's not the straightest path to Alaska. Wendy is also running out of money. She figures she has about $500 left to get her from Oregon to Alaska in her 20-year-old Honda. But the Honda needs work and she's saving every penny she still has to put it toward that goal. So Wendy and Lucy sleep in the car, eat very little, and bathe even less. Funny, you never hear Lucy complain, though. Director and co-writer Kelly Reichardt (2006's Old Joy) allows some fate to step in, and it's a good thing, because the film was in danger of becoming a little too meditative. Realizing that her characters are idling in this sleepy Oregon town for a few days while waiting for the car to be repaired, Reichardt separates Wendy and Lucy. Now, from a purely technical standpoint, it's a great idea because it forces Wendy to involve other characters in her journey, creating a cast out of a one-person story. And, of course, some of the saddest movies ever are about dogs. You hear the term "separation anxiety" to describe the way a pet feels when its master is away, but I think that anxiety is even stronger the other way around. Interestingly enough, even though Lucy goes missing and that's a very obvious device in the screenplay, it works emotionally, and most of that has to do with Williams. We never know why she's going to Alaska, why she left Indiana, how she and Lucy came to be together, or anything else about her. But because she's such a good actress, she invites us to believe anything we like; Wendy is a blank slate, and the only identifiable trait she really has is her love for Lucy. Wendy and Lucy is a fairly quick exercise - it clocks in at around 80 minutes - but it shouldn't be any longer than that. What we ultimately discover about Wendy is what she ultimately discovers about herself, and when that happens, the story's over and the movie should reflect that. It's not a landmark piece of filmmaking, but it's certainly good to see an actress put herself out there without a net the way Williams does here.