Film Festival 09 - Wendy and Lucy
Wendy and Lucy
USA 2008, 80m
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Festivals: Cannes (Un Certain Regard), Toronto, New York,
Vancouver, Pusan, London 2008; Rotterdam 2009
Wendy (Michelle Williams) is heading from some unspecified personal
disaster towards a new life in Alaska with her beloved yellow-gold
mongrel, Lucy. She's stranded in a backwater Oregon town, low on
funds, waiting for her car to be repaired when Lucy goes missing.
Distraught but stoic, she searches for the dog, dependent on the
kindness of strangers in a town where no one has much of anything
to spare. Working again with writer Jon Raymond, director Kelly
Reichardt (Old Joy) delivers a miniature, minimalist, quietly
devastating slice of contemporary Americana. Her picture of
small-town workers anxiously eying the new depression offers a
tacit critique of the Bush legacy that's as piercing as Williams'
naturalistic, nuanced performance. "There's inevitable sadness in
this story of the failings of modern America, but genuine
tenderness too, and the combination is both deeply felt and subtly
expressed." - Sandra Hebron, London Film Festival
www.wendyandlucy.com
