46) Wendy and Lucy

Wendy and Lucy (2008)


Director: Kelly Reichardt

Starring: Michelle Williams, Wally Dalton, Will Patton, Lucy the Dog


Once every three months or so Turramurra Uniting Church runs a Reel Dialogue evening. Reel Dialogue is a program which encourages Christians to "engage with popular culture without disengaging their faith". A film is screened and then there is a discussion about some of the issues and themes present in the film and the statements it makes about the world in which we live. Previously we've screened films like Wall-E, Doubt and Lars and the Real Girl. This time we screened a small American independent film called Wendy and Lucy.

Wendy (Williams) is poor and living out of her car as she tries to make her way across America to Alaska in hope of finding a job. Her only company is her dog Lucy (Lucy the Dog). She finds herself stranded in a small town in Oregon when her car breaks down. After being caught shop lifting she is taken to the police station, leaving Lucy tied up outside the store. When she returns to find Lucy gone, she begins the frantic search to find her beloved dog.

Director Kelly Reichardt says: "I don’t really have a plan for the audience, just questions. Like, are we related and do we owe each other anything? Are we supposed to take care of each other to any degree?" Wendy and Lucy really throws down some challenges to you as a viewer in terms of how we choose to see homeless people. We are often inclined to ignore homeless people, and Wendy's character is so unassuming and shy that even the camera at times does this. There are a number of scenes in which Wendy moves out of the frame and the camera neglects to follow her, continuing to stare at an empty screen until she moves back into shot. As the film progresses and characters become more familiar with them, the temptation to dehumanise her starts to give way to the realisation that she is a person. This change is most obvious in the Wendy's primary on-going human relationship in the film, with the old security guard (Dalton). The progression of this relationship is beautifully presented and is quite touching to watch.

Michelle Williams (the ex-Mrs. Heath Ledger) really carries this film, putting in a stunning performance which would not have looked out of place with a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Her performance as a young woman determined not to resign herself to the path her circumstances seem to be leading her down, is very subdued and understated, but quite stirring. This is probably the performance of Williams' career so far, but she has definitely come a long way since she was 'the other girl in Dawson's Creek' to become a real talent, if an under appreciated one.

Credit must also go to the performance of Lucy the Dog, or maybe more to Reichardt's direction. Having an animal as a main character can often lead to some very unsubtle moments but to Reichardt's credit, Lucy is never played for laughs or for cute puppy-dog-eyes moments. Rather Lucy is more of a blank canvas who Wendy can project her emotions onto.

With a running time of only 77mins, this film is very short by feature film standards, but it is the perfect length for the story it is trying to tell. While the story is quite emotional and powerful, it is also quite simple. There are not a lot of narrative threads, there aren't any great plot twists or anything like that, the narrative is straight forward and trying to extend it out to 90+mins would have merely diluted the power of the story.

Most likely this is a film you will never have heard of and will probably be a bit of a challenge to get your hands on a copy, but it is a heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, intimate little film. If you have a strong sense of social conscience this film will fire you up. If you don't, it might just open your eyes to some things.