Wendy and Lucy (2009)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Wendy and Lucy I watched some years ago and recently again. Fine performance by Michelle Williams - and Lucy (the dog). A fine little movie about a "loser" and outsider and her little world (lost in the middle of nowhere on the way to somewhere in a small town, car broke, only a little money left) and about a great decision and sacrifice to make. Heartwarming. Quiet. Good.

Simplicity, when employed wisely, can serve as an enhancement. Subtlety almost always does. Of all the films I've seen in recent months, including high budget productions and much artistry, this quiet drama with few words, a simple plot and more suggestions than out-spun explanations about the protagonist's background has hypnotised me the most. Everything about this film is just right, every word, however mundane. The carrier is without doubt the lead actress: she's done her job if you feel the person on screen actually has to exist, and you do. Williams is perfectly cast; it's perfect if one is convinced that no other should have played a part. Beside this Wendy's plight might feel awfully familiar to some. Feel, as it is the making that successfully makes the bleak experience of being stranded in a town with a possibly even bleaker past and no real idea about the future tangible. The film is to a large degree an in-between the lines reader. And nothing is added that isn't necessary. Very well done, by anyone involved.

After watching this film, I checked over the DVD features and found a text piece that described the work of filmmaker Kelly Reichardt as "art with profound ambitions on a human scale". Well, I don't know about what else Reichardt has done but you'd have to be one pretentious, ivory tower-livin' mofo to describe Wendy and Lucy as "profoundly ambitious". This is a very quiet, very slow, very naturalistic and extremely minimalistic 80 minutes of storytelling which eschews any sort of ambition, artistically or as entertainment. It's not poorly made and I suppose you could call it a success at what it's apparently trying to do. That purpose, though, has nothing to do with engaging the audience in any real way except to exploit the sentiments of dog lovers.Wendy (Michelle Williams) is a young woman making her way to Alaska for work, joined by her dog Lucy (Lucy the dog). Her POS car breaks down in an Oregon town and then Lucy goes missing, so Wendy spends the rest of the movie looking for her dog and trying to get the car fixed. Neither ends happily. The end.You may think I'm leaving something out of that synopsis but I'm really not. Reichardt's slice-of-life production simply follows this young woman along for a couple of days as she hangs onto the last rung of the economic ladder. Wendy does a lot of walking. She cleans herself in a convenience store bathroom. She makes a bed in the woods out of old sheets of cardboard. She befriends a Walgreen's parking lot security guard. And that's about it. We never know enough about Wendy to care about her for anything other than her missing dog. Nobody says very much. Nothing all that dramatic or comedic happens.If you hate dogs, you'll be bored out of your freakin' mind by this film. Unless you've lived a life that is totally insulated from the realities of working class existence in America and can view Wendy and Lucy as a cinematic safari into that environment, you'll be bored out of your freakin' mind by this film. Even fans of the lovely and talented Michelle Williams will be bored by this thing because she does little besides look forlorn, with about 30 seconds of abject misery thrown in.I mean, there's just nothing to this. The story is practically stillborn. The dialog is forgettable. The camera work is static and uneventful. Honestly, the majority of Wendy and Lucy feels like the deleted scenes that get cut out of a movie because they don't go anywhere or contribute anything to the story. Now, if this is the sort of thing you like, that's all well and good for you. Go ahead and wallow in the uninspired normality of it. But while I don't demand that every movie I watch have laser battles, topless chicks, kicks to the groin and a guy walking away as something explodes behind him, I do need more than what this motion picture is willing to give.This is not ambitious. This is small and limited and indifferent to anything outside of its narrow imagination. It would have been hard enough to sit through this as a 20 minute film festival entry. At four times that length, I'd bet most people never make it through Wendy and Lucy and I don't think they miss anything.

Yes it does a good job of showing how quickly one can go from a shoestring budget to completely homeless with virtually nothing but the clothes on one's back. Relevant yes. Minimalist yes. Alas, minimalist does not always mean good. Sure, lack of soundtrack definitely does highlight her loneliness. Poorly written detour point and story though, probably by someone who has never had a dog they truly loved and depended on to keep them sane when everything else in their life has "gone to the dogs.". Having gone through the loss of my own canine emotional support, I know it is immediately traumatizing, and obsession with finding the pet can overtake everything else, but that doesn't excuse the idiotic things this girl does, and she doesn't seem particularly obsessed anyway. I don't see that she was so upset she was in shock, so I can only concur with one of the other reviewers that this girl seems emotionally stunted and lacking in basic street intelligence. She can walk all over the damn place, but when she's already had to spend money she hadn't planned on (tow plus fine), that's when she starts buying coffee and donuts and paying for taxis when she could surely have gotten within walking distance of the foster house by taking a bus! If she could spend this now, why shoplift and start the whole dang tumble down the hill? Not to mention that if your dog cab handle dry food, you don't suddenly introduce wet (canned) food unless you want a diarrhea fest in your car later on. Dry dog food also isn't THAT expensive if you're just trying to keep your pup alive for a couple weeks till you get where you're going, so why not just buy the stuff? And who isn't aware that a dozen aluminum cans will earn you a whole, hmm, maybe two cents? Sorry, but the glaringly poor view of how stupid the "average" person is when they're down to their last $500 is just inexcusable, not to mention her lack of real emotional reaction to the missing dog. I saw emotion for about 3 seconds at the chain link fence, and that's it. Sure, crying about it prior to that wouldn't directly accomplish anything, but it certainly would have been more realistic to have her have a moment when she's got to just let it all out than just "oh, now I have to look for my dog, one more thing that's holding up my journey."