There was a moment in 'Wendy and Lucy' at which I paused the film and wondered how on earth I could possibly feel any sympathy towards the situation that Wendy now found herself in. The film tells me nothing about why it is that she has become so lonely, so poor and so determined to travel to Alaska. We learn nothing of her past, we learn only fragments of her present and we will know nothing of her future. Wendy's ambitions, Wendy's past jobs, relationships and hobbies are never revealed.
I thought to myself, 'surely we need some sort of back-story to this woman's life to sympathise with the fact that she finds herself alone with her dog Lucy in an unfamiliar town with little money, no friends or family around her, and a car whose ignition will no longer fire up?' But at the same time of asking such question I realised that I did feel sympathy. The question was a redundant one, for it mattered not what had happened before in Wendy's life. In the here and now, Wendy was in a torrid situation and that is all that seems to matter. It's a credit to this film that it manages to successfully tease out that emotion from it's viewer despite not giving us much of a reason to attach ourselves to it's lead character.
Wendy's only friend is her 'yellow-gold' Golden Retriever called Lucy. Together they have travelled perhaps from Indiana and are heading for Alaska so that Wendy can find work there. The job plans there do not bring about excitement raising questions as to why Wendy things travelling so far to get there is such a good idea. It's as if Alaska is viewed as the end of the world.
Wendy takes overnight comfort in her car but one morning is woken by a friendly security guard whose job it is to watch over a car park that never seems to have any cars populating it. Despite his friendly persona he takes his job seriously and reluctantly informs Wendy that overnight stays in the car park are against regulations and she will have to pull out. Wendy agrees but her car won't start.
This is only the beginning of her problems. Needing to restock on dog food but not wanting to pay, Wendy is caught stealing from the local store and taking to the local station for questioning, finger prints and so that she can pay her fine. When she is eventually released she returns to the store to find that Lucy (whom she had tied to a bike rack whilst she went into the store previously) has disappeared. Even lonelier now, Wendy is advised by the friendly security guard to keep checking the local dog pound to see if she is handed in. She has to walk there and walk back again to see if the local garage has fixed her car yet. Most of the time she hears bad news, "No dogs match that description" or "Your bill could be $2000". Eventually she gives up on the car, but never on Lucy.
The film stars Michelle Williams an actress I'm unfamiliar with despite her being in familiar films such as Shutter Island, Synecdoche New York and Brokeback Mountain. Most of this credit I just mentioned should be given to this 29 year old's performance, which is so good and convinced me to believe in her. The Toronto Film Critics Association also recognized this talent by awarding her their 'Best Actress Award' in 2008 fending off competition from Meryll Streep for her performance in Doubt. Past recipients of the award are Thora Birch in Ghost World, Ellen Page in Juno (who beat Laura Dern to the prize in her powerhouse performance in the epic Inland Empire) and Carey Mulligan in last year's An Education. That is how good a performance this is by Miss Williams.
The cinematography helps too. Not only does Sam Levy capture wide-lens shots that look really nice but he also points the camera straight at the expressive face of Wendy which really captures the emotion of the journey that she undertook and may now regret. We'll never know.
And then, by the end, when Wendy makes that heart-wrenching decision, we salute the film for making us realise, in it's short running time of 80 minutes, that the decision was the right one and for convincing us so truly that Wendy's emotions were real.
Rating: 8/10
