• the217
• Movies + TV
• Road movie Wendy and Lucy catalogues a journey

Related Media

Related Video

The road movie catalogues a journey; it is a picture of transformation as we watch the protagonist struggle to reach their destination. Concerned less with where she has come from or where she is going, Wendy and Lucy tells the story of where Wendy is stuck on the way. Michelle Williams is almost unrecognizable as Wendy, the girl on a mission to make it to a cannery in Alaska, where she hopes to start her life anew bringing her best friend, a dog named Lucy, along for the ride. Unfortunately, when her car breaks down in Oregon, it threatens to leave them both stranded and destroy Wendy’s dream.

Director Kelly Reichardt’s film effuses that rare subtlety which makes its story so utterly believable. Actors seem to only be playing themselves and the film encourages its audience to feel the same pain as Wendy. The only comparison that comes to mind is the work of Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, Man Push Cart) who has utterly perfected this technique. Wendy and Lucy feels otherwise like nothing else in theaters today.

Wendy’s past is never delved into, and the reasons why she seems to be running from her hometown are just barely hinted at. The film seems to want its audience to feel as though we’ve just met Wendy. Despite this, the film uses our genuine human compassion to get us to care for her. Using the gorgeous backdrop of the Pacific Northwest to set the scene, we watch Wendy stumble through life. The film perfectly captures the aimless, dangerous feeling so many recent college grads seem to know all too well.