Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Weekly Film Wreck: Wendy and Lucy

This space is quickly devolving into variations on a theme. I promise I'll have different content coming up other than Weekly Film Rec/Wrecks. My iPod crashed the other day, curtailing a very fun column (for me, at least).

Wendy and Lucy isn't exactly a wreck. In fact, I kind of liked it. However, I feel that the reasons that I liked it are the same reasons that it's a wreck. To preface this article, I loved Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt's previous film). Old Joy featured a languid pace and subdued score that helped the film wash over me and get more involved in the relationship between the two main characters, neither of whom is a particularly likable person. That film sneaks up on you and explores the characters in subtle and nuanced ways. Wendy and Lucy, on the other hand, while featuring the same meandering pace, is pure and blatant manipulation.

Wendy (Michelle Williams) is on her way from Indiana to Alaska to find work. Her car breaks down in Portland and her dog, Lucy, goes missing. The rest of the movie is Wendy trying to find her dog and get her car fixed with limited funds. Any roadblock that can be thrown in the way is thrown away.

The reason I kind of like the film is that I can totally empathize with Wendy. I am a dog lover and have had dogs most of my life. I'm very familiar with the attachment to the animals and would be devastated if my dog went missing. Which brings me to the manipulation...

Nearly everyone can empathize with her plight. In fact, I bet there's a sizable chunk of the population that would be more affected by a dog (or other pet) getting lost than a baby (and I'd probably count myself amongst their ranks [this goes only for a movie, not in real life]). An emotional hook has already snagged the audience, so what better way to reel them in by piling on the troubles?

Before I go on to the issue that really gets to the core of why I'm featuring Wendy and Lucy here, the movie does a really good job of portraying aspects of what it must be like to be a woman alone and on the streets. The scene with Larry Fassenden jabbering on while Williams is trying to sleep in the park is legitimately terrifying.

But, and there will be spoilers for the ending here, to have her go through everything she does and eventually find her dog at a foster home only to leave it their is entirely disingenuous. Reichardt has gone to great lengths to show that Wendy is all alone and needs Wendy. Not only that, but it's damned short-sided of the character not to realize that, if things are as good in Alaska as the movie says, Lucy won't just have a yard to play in, but a countryside. Leaving Lucy behind only serves to wrench the last bit of guts in the viewers. Not only that, but she says who nice the man keeping her is seems. Based on what? That he drives a Prius?

The message I took from Wendy and Lucy is said by Andy, the jerk-store working at the grocery store (and I'm paraphrasing... I think): "You shouldn't own a dog if you can't feed it." I happen to agree with sentiment, but it seems to be an odd message to build a movie around. Maybe a thirty second PSA...

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