This is one of the finer examples of powerful minimalist film-making I have ever seen. It is a story of a homeless woman named Wendy (Michelle Williams) making her way to Alaska to look for work in a cannery with her only remaining friend (her dog Lucy). A series of events in an Oregon town separate them, and the bulk of the film's 80 minute running time is devoted to Wendy's desperate search for her missing companion.
Wendy sleeps in her car, bathes and changes close in a local gas station restroom and tries in vain to find food for Lucy. Michelle Williams is brilliant in a role that is very restrained. She is able to inspire empathy in the audience by her mere presence as a frightened and courageous young woman who has been cast off by family and society. I felt like I knew Wendy without her having to say a word. When she loses her friend the stakes are incredibly high, and an uneasy panic began to mount in me as she encountered every obstacle in her search.
Along they way she encounters townspeople, both friendly and otherwise. The most notable is a kind old security guard to watches over a local drugstore that no one ever seems to visit. He sees something in her that compels him to help with what little means he has. It's refreshing to see a character that exemplifies human decency the way he does.
A movie like this is what I live for as a fan of film. It doesn't concern itself with a complex plot or any other cliche. It simply presents a situation and allows us to be absorbed and affected by it on our own terms. I wanted nothing more than to be able to help Wendy, an unnoticed human being in pain. It made me reflect on times when I may have acted just like the townspeople who ignore her. I will think differently about the next person like her that I see. Films can elicit unexpected feelings in you. Wendy and Lucy does this, and is an example of why I love the movies.
4/4 stars
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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