Who is Wendy? I feel like I know her so well, yet I know so little about her. Where does she come from? Where has she been? And what has led her to a life on the road? I know none of these things, yet I feel like I just finished watching someone I have known all my life and that is what makes Wendy so intriguing and familiar to me.
Written and Directed by Kelly Reichardt, "Wendy and Lucy" is a film
that tells the story of a young woman who is traveling across the
country to look for work in Alaska. However, her life is derailed when
her car breaks down and she loses her golden retriever while passing
through a small mill town in Oregon.
There is nothing pointing at who the real Wendy (Michelle Williams) is. She seems to be determined to find something new in life, possibly running away from a troubled past. Her car is her home and the road is her path to a new beginning. We do pick up a few things along the way. Wendy has a sister, who seems aggravated with Wendy's current state, living in Indiana (where we can assume Wendy is from). We also know she is hoping to possibly make it to Ketchikan, Alaska to land a job at a fish cannery.
While Wendy runs low on money, she becomes more desperate to continue to fund her journey that could possibly be her last hope to truly find salvation from a past life. The only thing that she has of value in her life is her 1988 Honda Accord and her best friend Lucy. But all that is put in question once her trip is turned upside down when she falls asleep in her car only to wake up to a store security guard knocking on her window. He tells her she has to move the car, only it won't start. With a little help from the mysterious security guard, her car is wheeled to the road. When she goes to feed Lucy we find that she is out of dog food, which begins a chain of events that leads to her arrest (thanks to a Nurse Ratchet-esque supermarket employee), the loss of her dog and eventually her car.
Wendy's story is often told through the expressions on her face and Williams' portrayal is powerful and emotional. The film keeps you on the edge of your seat as Wendy combs the town on a mission to find her lost friend. If you didn't know any better, you might think Williams had been in this type of place sometime in her own life to be able to interpret the true emotions of such a person who has traveled far away from home and has lost everything. The characters that Wendy encounters along the way seem like people you might have come across in your own life travels. There is no hope of salvation for these characters from a cruel world that has been as bad to them as they have been to it. While Wendy has no one to turn to - though a mechanic (Will Patton) and older security guard (Wally Dalton) are sympathetic to her situation - the same goes for the characters she meets.
Her story is that of anyone who has ever lost something or someone before and desperately yearns to get it back. The loneliness, desperation and wanting to understand what has happened to something or someone is a feeling we have all experienced at one time or another. At one point things do seem to be looking up for Wendy, but just as she thinks she will escape with nothing less than the loss of half her funds, some unwanted news leaves her having to make the toughest decision of her life.
The scenes in the film are just one story in Wendy's journey for salvation, freedom and a better life in Alaska. In the end, we do not know how Wendy's or any of the other characters in the film's lives end, but her experience, emotions and the strain of society on her is something that we can all connect with on some level or another.
The Saratoga Film Forum will be showing "Wendy and Lucy" in The Dee Sarno Theatre on Friday, March 13 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 15 at 3 p.m. To learn more about The Saratoga Film Forum and their future showings, visit www.saratogafilmforum.org/.
There is nothing pointing at who the real Wendy (Michelle Williams) is. She seems to be determined to find something new in life, possibly running away from a troubled past. Her car is her home and the road is her path to a new beginning. We do pick up a few things along the way. Wendy has a sister, who seems aggravated with Wendy's current state, living in Indiana (where we can assume Wendy is from). We also know she is hoping to possibly make it to Ketchikan, Alaska to land a job at a fish cannery.
While Wendy runs low on money, she becomes more desperate to continue to fund her journey that could possibly be her last hope to truly find salvation from a past life. The only thing that she has of value in her life is her 1988 Honda Accord and her best friend Lucy. But all that is put in question once her trip is turned upside down when she falls asleep in her car only to wake up to a store security guard knocking on her window. He tells her she has to move the car, only it won't start. With a little help from the mysterious security guard, her car is wheeled to the road. When she goes to feed Lucy we find that she is out of dog food, which begins a chain of events that leads to her arrest (thanks to a Nurse Ratchet-esque supermarket employee), the loss of her dog and eventually her car.
Wendy's story is often told through the expressions on her face and Williams' portrayal is powerful and emotional. The film keeps you on the edge of your seat as Wendy combs the town on a mission to find her lost friend. If you didn't know any better, you might think Williams had been in this type of place sometime in her own life to be able to interpret the true emotions of such a person who has traveled far away from home and has lost everything. The characters that Wendy encounters along the way seem like people you might have come across in your own life travels. There is no hope of salvation for these characters from a cruel world that has been as bad to them as they have been to it. While Wendy has no one to turn to - though a mechanic (Will Patton) and older security guard (Wally Dalton) are sympathetic to her situation - the same goes for the characters she meets.
Her story is that of anyone who has ever lost something or someone before and desperately yearns to get it back. The loneliness, desperation and wanting to understand what has happened to something or someone is a feeling we have all experienced at one time or another. At one point things do seem to be looking up for Wendy, but just as she thinks she will escape with nothing less than the loss of half her funds, some unwanted news leaves her having to make the toughest decision of her life.
The scenes in the film are just one story in Wendy's journey for salvation, freedom and a better life in Alaska. In the end, we do not know how Wendy's or any of the other characters in the film's lives end, but her experience, emotions and the strain of society on her is something that we can all connect with on some level or another.
The Saratoga Film Forum will be showing "Wendy and Lucy" in The Dee Sarno Theatre on Friday, March 13 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 15 at 3 p.m. To learn more about The Saratoga Film Forum and their future showings, visit www.saratogafilmforum.org/.
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