Wendy and Lucy
Kelly Reichardt | USA | 2008
80 min

Wendy and Lucy is a disparaging film about the continuous misfortunes that befall its main character Wendy. Lucy is of course her dog, who gets lost and must be found. Director Kelly Reichardt’s film is about the effect of poverty and the search for that great moment in a person’s life when things will change for the better. In her film, loss and regret are key traits, just like they were in her earlier film, the sleepy, artsy Old Joy, and both films share the same shortcomings — a good idea stretched to feature film length in a film that can’t sustain our interest for too long.

As Wendy, Michelle Williams is androgynous and lost, though there’s no denying the immense power of her performance. She wanders through Oregon, telling everyone during her mumbled conversations that she’s just “passing through” on her way to Alaska to find a better life. This is a poor man’s Into the Wild, stripped of that very basic of film purposes, telling a meaningful story. Not that there isn’t one to tell here — compared to her previous effort, Wendy and Lucy is almost adrenalized, but it still lacks motion. Put in prison briefly for stealing dog food at a supermarket, we spend many quite moments with Wendy in her cell, watch her search for her dog, wash herself in public restrooms, call up the local dog pound, put up ‘lost dog’ posters around the city, all while her broken down car is repaired. Essentially this is the film, but it is stripped of interesting predicaments or narrative momentum. Like last year’s Ballast, it functions as a snapshot of a time and place meant to reflect realism, but alienates with its detachment and unpretentiousness.

The fascination with dogs or animals as surrogate children might make the films sense of loss all the more resonant for some, but for me it has little or no effect and this might just be cultural apathy. Overall, the film is laconic and dull. It has neither the sensible storytelling technique of Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop or that other fabulous American independent film from last year, Momma’s Man. All three films share certain realism on display, but Wendy and Lucy has nothing to offer beyond its dried observation. It is a critic’s film — to some this will be part of the charm, and while there is no denying the tenderness of its end, it is also sedative.