Thank God for Kelly Reichardt. A kind of female director that comes by rarely. She has crafted a story that features an interesting female lead in a universally relatable story. Wendy and Lucy is the story of a girl (Michelle Williams) traveling to Alaska for work in a fishery with her dog Lucy. Along the way she makes a stop in a small Oregonian town finding that her car will no longer start. Noticing that Lucy is hungry, she attempts to shoplift some dog food and gets caught and arrested. During her time in the store she had left Lucy tied up out in the front and she disappears by the time Wendy has returned from her stint in the jail. Reichardt has only so far had one other major feature, the film Old Joy. Admittedly, I haven't seen it but I added it to my netflix queue as soon as I finished with Wendy and Lucy. Recihardt's minimalistic style is good enough to rival Van Sant's modern minimalism for the spot of my favorite modern film style.
During a period of economic crisis, this film is wholly relevant. Wendy leaves her small Indiana town to find work in Alaska because she has to. During her stop in Oregon she asks a small time security guard about the number of jobs in town and he reaffirms her beliefs by saying that there are few. Even if few are in the state that Wendy is in, many have been losing jobs and others have been finding it harder to find work. Small business are putting the brake on hiring new employees and the big business are having major layoffs. As a statement on the current economic state, Reichardt's film is very 2008. Even if this year had no big break out hits, Wendy and Lucy is the quintessential 2008 film.
Michelle Williams is in the position to carry the whole movie and she does it well. Reichardt reportedly thought that Williams was too pretty to play this role so she asked her to not wear make-up or shower for two weeks. She looks the part of a vagabond. She has hardly anything in common here with her previous role. Her performance is subtle and she has few lines of dialogue which she delivers superbly. Nothing grand happens in the film plot-wise but the importance of all the seemingly minisclue things that happen can be seen in Williams' face throughout the whole film.
Reichardt's choice of imagery is beautiful. It's beautiful in its modesty. It shows you simple images of American life and American wilderness that create a perfect backdrop for Wendy and Lucy's story. I was moved by what I saw.
If you have a chance to see Wendy and Lucy, I would highly recommend that you take it (especially if you're one of those that is convinced that 2008 was a crap year for film.)
