Wendy Carroll (Michelle Williams) is driving to Ketchikan, Alaska, in hopes of a summer of lucrative work at the North-western Fish Cannery, and the start of a new life with her dog, Lucy (Lucy the dog). When her car breaks down in Oregon, however, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she confronts a series of increasingly dire economic decisions, with far-ranging repercussions for herself and her dog. Wendy and Lucy address issues of sympathy and generosity at the edges of American life, revealing the limits and depths of people's duty to each other in tough times.
Special Agent Matti
If I was feeling uncharitable then I'd say that this movie was about a bitch and her dog but I'm not felling uncharitable so I'll say it's about a bitch and her owner. Wendy and Lucy is one of those indie films that pop up every now and again in complete contrast to every Hollywood movie ever made: nothing happens to people of no great interest in places no-one would ever want to visit. By the time it's over you have garnered enough Indie Film Reward Points™ that you can watch any Hollywood blockbuster and not lose any street cred. Costumes? Make-up? Special effects? Pointless fripperies for jaded, decadent Westerners with the attention span of a gnat. Plot? Plots are for small-minded reactionary patriarchal capitalists. Wendy and Lucy is about as hardcore, indie, Dogme art-house as an American can get. Be warned.
The drama, road trip movie Wendy and Lucy is directed by Kelly Reichardt and stars Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Will Oldham.
M (Coarse language)
77 minutes (1:17 hours)
Film: 26 March 2009
DVD rental: 19 August 2009
DVD retail: 4 November 2009
