The heartbreaking minimalism of director Kelly Reichardt’s work comes to the fore again in Wendy and Lucy. Admirably bereft of affectations or emotional manipulation, her third film, based on a story by Jon Raymond like Old Joy (2006) before it, charts the forlorn journey of a young woman who has been beaten down by life.
Passing through the bleak outskirts of Portland, Oregon on her way to Alaska for a job, Wendy Carroll (Michelle Williams) is down to her last $500. Unable to afford lodgings, she washes in public restrooms and sleeps in her car with faithful dog Lucy. But upon waking, her old Accord refuses to turn over. Then, after attempting to steal a few items from the local supermarket she gets arrested, leaving Lucy tethered to a pole.
Upon her release many hours later, her companion is gone. The complication of her inert, useless car and limited finances triples the agony. Only an aged security guard, (Walter Dalton) working nearby can offer consolatory words or meaningful advice as a wave of despair grips her like a vice.
Wendy and Lucy (2008) is one of the most moving films you’ll ever see. It has a simplicity that astounds, a truthfulness that clings to every frame, from the hope denied Wendy by a brief but telling phone conversation with her sister and brother in law back in Indiana, to the sense of being both physically and emotionally stranded against a barren landscape with little means of escape.
Reichardt places all her faith in Williams, her lead repays it many times over with a stunning performance. Here’s an actress who has seemingly emerged from the margins of firstly, TV dramas to promising support roles, to become one of the world’s finest. Off the back of her Oscar nomination for Blue Valentine (2010), Williams recently cemented her relationship with Reichardt in the riveting Meek’s Cutoff (2011)(review to come).
But perhaps neither performance is as accomplished as the pain of living she inflicts upon her portrayal of the downtrodden but sincere Wendy; every slowly accrued mile, watching her funds whittled away and with no saviour waiting in the wings, can be read in every glance. Wendy’s search for her dog is a painful thing to endure but compellingly compiled by Reichardt from the environment with which Wendy must interact.
If you can resist a tear or two at the end of this film then you’re made of sterner stuff than I. Reichardt allows no easy escape route in distilling this tale down to its essential components: the grind and fear of living when you’re down to the bone. There’s no soaring musical cue to accompany an ecstatic reunion no contrivances to sweeten the pot.
But there is hope, strength of spirit and flickers of humanity that are as consoling as they are surprising. This is a wonderful film from a filmmaker whose adherence to an acute naturalism is conclusive proof of why any definition of substance remains resistant to notions of bedazzling technical prowess.
I say:
Possibly the best dog movie of all time beside the point though that is!
See it for:
Simply, Michelle Williams. A stunning portrayal that will rip your heart out.
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