I'm Not From Here; I Can't BE An Example For Anyone."

Wendy and Lucy
2008, dir. Kelly Reichardt
Starring Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Scott Wilson, Will Oldham.
1 hour 20 minutes

Michelle Williams stars as Wendy who, with her dog Lucy, stop off in a small Oregon town on their way to Alaska in search of work. Wendy doesn’t have very much money, and her car is almost dead. Things go from bad to worse when Wendy is caught shoplifting food, which leads to her dog disappearing.

Wendy and Lucy is the second film from director Kelly Reichardt, after Oldjoy, the story of two old friends who go on a road trip and then hike to some famous hot springs. Like Oldjoy, Wendy and Lucy is not overly concerned with the story, but rather the characters, in this case almost exclusively Wendy. Unlike other movies (especially independent ones), Wendy and Lucy doesn’t follow the usual route of making the small-town locals eccentric characters, but rather portrays them as being rather ordinary, no different really than people you’d meet anywhere.

That, however, may be the film’s undoing, because at the end of a long-feeling hour and twenty minutes, you’re not quite sure what the point of it all is. Wendy ends up in town, problems arise, and they’re not resolved, only abandoned, not to put too fine a point on it. Michelle Williams is very convincing in her role, but everyone just seems to be there to feed her character’s plot.

2 ½ stars

Saw with Steph at the Bytowne.