No animal is better equipped to be a cinematic subject than a dog, with their adorable eyes, outsized personalities, and uncomplicated motivation for unconditional love. You see a dog’s interaction with their human owner for all of a minute, and you know exactly how its entire daily life plays out, the easiest version of “show don’t tell” imaginable. The best dog films are the ones that show humanity’s immense capacity for love and community through their connection to their dog, and Wendy and Lucy is one of the most beautiful depictions of that connection. This is perhaps the most accessible and direct narrative of indie maestro Kelly Reichardt‘s career, which makes it all the more disappointing how unseen this film became outside of critics’ circles. Since it’s on Tubi now, you owe it to yourself to see this gem that’s light on plot but overflowing with everyday humanity, both for better and for worse.
What is ‘Wendy and Lucy’ About?
Wendy (Michelle Williams) is walking the roads of Oregon on a quest to Alaska in the hopes of getting a job in a cannery factory. She seems to be completely homeless and estranged from what little family she has left, and her only true companion is her dog, Lucy (played by Kelly Reichardt’s own dog, Lucy). Wendy takes Lucy everywhere with her, whether it’s getting cleaned up in a gas station bathroom or trying to earn money by dropping off cans and bottles at a dispensary. Things take a turn for the worse when Wendy gets arrested for shoplifting, and by the time she’s let go from the police station, Lucy is completely gone from where she was left outside the grocery store. With no one to turn to and few resources to depend on besides her dedication, Wendy will do anything she can muster to find Lucy and keep moving forward in life. This sounds like the soul-stirring hokum of Lasse Hålstrom, but Kelly Reichardt is too attuned to the microscopic ways that we reveal the worlds we live in to cave to any sentimentality, and makes this film all the more admirable for how unflinchingly it weathers the storm of an uncaring society.
‘Wendy and Lucy’ Doesn’t Sentimentalize the Experience of Being Homeless
Tension is not usually a hallmark emotion that a Reichardt film will inspire, but it’s hard not to feel the vice grip slowly squeeze Wendy as she’s repeatedly tested in the most mundane of ways. From a humanist ethical perspective, there’s no reason she had to be arrested for the minuscule amount of food she tried to take, and was caught by a pencil-pusher who insisted that “company policy” matters above all else. She got out of jail only after being effectively forced to pay a $50 fine to avoid a future court date, which was money she barely had and that she would have found a way to make last for many days. The only traces of true help she finds come from the simple kindness and recognition of people, like a security guard with whom she develops a very low-key rapport that would otherwise be the backbone of a more traditionally Hollywood story, or a mechanic who offers a significant discount on car repairs that she desperately needs. Even then, as soothing to the soul as those instances may be, they do little to alleviate Wendy of the plight she must face on a constant basis. We’ve seen some films attempt to capture the experience of being truly homeless, but few films capture the pervasive threat of danger that such individuals find themselves surrounded by, be it the invisible ways that American society enacts violence against them or how swiftly any other human could be a friend or foe to them.
Michelle Williams Gives ‘Wendy and Lucy’ Its Emotional Punch
Such a threat is only felt by being emotionally invested in Wendy’s experience, and Michelle Williams gives one of her best, albeit comparatively unsung, performances, particularly impressive for how little it relies on traditional backstory. We don’t know how she became homeless, why she’s on such thin ice with her family, or how she found out about this Alaska job. All we know is that she has a destination in mind, she loves her dog more than anything else, and she knows how to take care of herself, even when things get scary. Everything that’s truly to learn about Wendy lies in Williams’ face, how she’s clearly exhausted but not defeated, the private cries she has to herself that burst out as soon as she’s in a safe place, the way she keeps a poker face as she scans somebody to figure out if they’re trustworthy or not.
This may not be a Mad Max post-apocalyptic genre piece, but Wendy is every bit as much of a survivalist, all for the sake of Lucy. I’m not going to get into spoilers, obviously, but the film ultimately winds up in a place where it asks the audience to confront what you would truly accept for the sake of what’s best for your pup, how much strength you would need to hold onto the promise of seeing your dog again. Williams had already proved herself to be one of the most erudite displayers of what good on-screen crying looks like, thanks to Brokeback Mountain, and Wendy and Lucy achieves its crushing power through how painful it is to watch Wendy try so hard not to cry at what she must do because of her love for Lucy. Oh, the things she’ll do for puppy love.
Wendy and Lucy is available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.
Wendy and Lucy
- Release Date
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December 10, 2008
- Runtime
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81 minutes
- Writers
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Jonathan Raymond
- Producers
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Joshua Blum, Larry Fessenden, Phil Morrison, Todd Haynes, Anish Savjani, Neil Kopp
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Wally Dalton
Security Guard
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