WENDY AND LUCY is so drably lit, uncreatively shot and cinema verite-styled that, were it not for Michelle Williams, it would've been rendered flat-out boring. And although that sounds like a statement worthy of a zero or one star review, such a rating would not be fair, either.
For me, WENDY AND LUCY had some worthy ideas to explore but just did not do so in a way that truly affected me.
Willams is Wendy, a poor drifter heading toward Alaska, where she hopes to find steady work. Frustratingly, we do not know anything about what led her to this point, and we see her make decisions that lead us to believe that at least half of her hardship was brought upon by herself. The only two signs of responsibility Wendy seems to show are a journal in which she keeps track of her expenses and her dog, Lucy -- her travel companion for who she is constantly concerned. Things get completely bleak for Wendy when she is detained for shoplifting and Lucy goes missing.
I won't spoil the ending, but it made me angry, if for no other reason than the fact that I felt that it robbed me of hope, which is not something you like to have happen to you.
As for the rest of the film, it was very "un-artful." I'm sure that was intentional and it's just not my style. At only 80 minutes long and so slightly directed, the film feels like a trifle of a short story, more or less capturing a mood than an actual plot (though one does exist).
The timing of WENDY AND LUCY is right, though, and I think that's one of the film's benefits. There are so many people who are down and out in our country right now, that the question of to whom one can turn for just a little decency and human kindness in more relevant than ever. And this film contains one such scene -- where a meager gesture on the part of a relative stranger provides WENDY AND LUCY with perhaps its only moment of hope.
If you like movies that feel like movies, you won't like this one. But that doesn't make it completely worthless.
2.0 out of 4
For me, WENDY AND LUCY had some worthy ideas to explore but just did not do so in a way that truly affected me.
Willams is Wendy, a poor drifter heading toward Alaska, where she hopes to find steady work. Frustratingly, we do not know anything about what led her to this point, and we see her make decisions that lead us to believe that at least half of her hardship was brought upon by herself. The only two signs of responsibility Wendy seems to show are a journal in which she keeps track of her expenses and her dog, Lucy -- her travel companion for who she is constantly concerned. Things get completely bleak for Wendy when she is detained for shoplifting and Lucy goes missing.
I won't spoil the ending, but it made me angry, if for no other reason than the fact that I felt that it robbed me of hope, which is not something you like to have happen to you.
As for the rest of the film, it was very "un-artful." I'm sure that was intentional and it's just not my style. At only 80 minutes long and so slightly directed, the film feels like a trifle of a short story, more or less capturing a mood than an actual plot (though one does exist).
The timing of WENDY AND LUCY is right, though, and I think that's one of the film's benefits. There are so many people who are down and out in our country right now, that the question of to whom one can turn for just a little decency and human kindness in more relevant than ever. And this film contains one such scene -- where a meager gesture on the part of a relative stranger provides WENDY AND LUCY with perhaps its only moment of hope.
If you like movies that feel like movies, you won't like this one. But that doesn't make it completely worthless.
2.0 out of 4
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