"Wendy and Lucy" tells a melancholic and harshly realistic story about what it's like living off you're last bit of money. As Wendy's struggles grow within the limited Oregon setting, it becomes clear just how bad her situation really is. Although the plot is limited, I found myself intrigued - not by some grandiose story - but by the humanism explored within this film. Kelly Reichardt's movie is not overly cinematic, nor is it spectacular and filled with wonderment, but it is human. It excels in portraying realistic characters who are struggling with problems most of us can empathize with.

A short, and sweet attempt at a low-budget drama. A Kelly Reichardt classic, so it's become. Michelle Williams is very good in this, and so is Lucy. Standout moments include the scene in the park where Wendy is confronted by a crazed homeless person. But dammit if I'm not a sap when it comes to sad dog movies. It was a hard watch. Not to mention, that some sections were downright slow and uneventful. Meh.

After having massively enjoyed watching the first season of Dawsons Creek in my teens, (which holds the unique honour of being the only TV season boxset,that I watched from the beginning to the end in one sitting!)I made sure to keep checking every so often to see what projects the actors were now making.When I finished watching James Van Der Beeks very good performance in the excellent jet-black comedy The Rules of Attrection,and I started to hear that Katie Holme had been cast in the new Batman film,my first through was that these two would be the main break out stars of the series.However,just as Batman Begins was about to come out,I noticed that people were starting to talk about a film that Michelle Williams was co-starring in,which seemed to be a small, low-budget film called Brokeback Mountain...The plot:Whilst Wendy (who only has her dog Lucy for a companion) is on her way for an important job interview,her car suddenly breaks down in the middle of nowhere.Realising that the town is completely dead at night,Wendy decides to sleep in the car and wait until morning.Almost as soon as the sun has risen,a security guard knocks on the car doors to tell,Wendy that she needs to move the car,due to it blocking a road.With the guard and Wendy having moved the car,Wendy decides to ask the guard if there is a near by supermarket,so that she can get some dog food for Lucy.Tieing up Lucy next to the supermarket,Wendy goes to get some tins of food for Lucy.As she gets nearer the till,Wendy begins to realise that she has to not waste a single penny that she has got on her.Which leads Wendy to deciding that she has to shoplift the food.Unluckally for her,she is easily spotted and taken to the police, to spend the whole night in jail.Having been released from the cell,Wendy goes rushing back to the supermarket,and discovers to her horror that Lucy is no longer there.With the kind help of the security guard,Wendy is able to get in contact with a local animal shelter (who tell her that they will keep an eye out for Lucy) and a near by car repair shop.But now,with her money more limited then ever,Wendy begins to wonder if there is anyway possible that she can afford for the car to get repaired,and pay for the food and blankets that she and Lucy will desperately need..View on the film:The first thing that caught my attention about the film was the astonishing performance from Michelle Williams as Wendy,who has taken the character in the complete opposite direction of her "high maintenance" character in Dawsons Creek.Williams makes the character someone that is very easy to relate to,even for people who have only ever had to face half the problems, that she faces in the film.This is helped by Williams brilliantly changing her physical appearance,which really helps to show how much Wendy is trying to keep her life moving,even when it seems that the world is determined to keep her on the outskirts of society.Along with Williams,Lucy the dog also gives a very good performance,with the way she interacts with Wendy being very natural,and helping to give a strong sense of companionship for Wendy.Although the screenplay does have a bit of an out-of-place, small sub-plot with a tramp which feels out of place,the main centre of the screenplay by writer/director Kelly Reichardt and Jon Raymond (who also wrote the short story Train Choir:which is the story that the film is based on)put the film into a painfully real reality,with Reichardt gritty,very grainy look helping to complement the fantastic screenplay in making a film that has only a hand full of characters,look like a place that you could easily find yourself in. Final view on the film:An amazing,grainy film,with a stunning performance by Williams and brilliant directing from Reichardt.

"Thirty years ago it would have been widely accepted that objective knowledge about society and history was an asset for a filmmaker. Better film artists adopted a serious attitude toward social life and aesthetics. Today, such an attitude is considered a hindrance. Pastiche, improvisation, surface gloss are highly valued; art is apparently produced by the organisation of clever accidents. This is a temporary state of affairs, but a costly and destructive one. Art, including bad art, has consequences." - David Walsh Cinema has a long history of using tales of youths and their dogs (or other animals, think Loach's "Kes") as an entryway into issues of poverty and social injustice. One of the best of these films is Pereira dos Santos' "Vidas Secas" (also see de Sica's "Umberto D"), one of the defining films of Brazil's cinema novo."Wendy and Lucy", a quietly devastating film by Kelly Reichardt, updates these films and sets them in contemporary America. It opens on Wendy, beautifully played by actress Michelle Williams, and her beloved dog Lucy, as they stroll through Oregon's woodlands. It's a postcard image of a girl and her dog, but one which gets increasingly perverted as the film progresses. And so gradually it becomes clear that Wendy has very little money, lives out of her car, is on her way to Alaska hoping to find employment and that Lucy is the only creature in the world with whom Wendy has a close emotional connection. When Wendy's meagre possessions are taken away from her bit by bit, she increasingly finds herself desperately clutching at straws, not only to survive, but to maintain her sanity. By the end of the film, Wendy's given away everything she has: to possess anything is a burden and debt she cannot maintain.Today in the US, millions hang by their fingernails, and yet you wouldn't know this by the kinds of films routinely churned out, both Hollywood and independent cinema doing as much as they can to ignore contemporary life. Today, over forty five million Americans are living in poverty, over ten million now receive unemployment benefits, the middle class continues to shrink, nationwide bankruptcy has risen above 20 percent and those fortunate to have a job or jobs work long hours for relatively little. Yes, capitalism and its inherent contradictions continue to rumble on - business as usual - but there's also a certain amount of denial at work."We began writing the script after Hurricane Katrina, when the contempt (for those less fortunate) was in the air," Reichardt explains. "if you're poor in America, the perception is that its because you're lazy. As the gap between rich and poor has grown over eight years, so has the feeling that it's okay." So one of the best things about "Wendy and Lucy" is the way its ambiguity practically baits you into chastising Wendy, inducing the kind contempt many have for the homeless and impoverished. Why is Wendy alone? Why is she on the streets? Why doesn't she get a job? (capitalism requires 10-25 percent unemployment) Can't she work? Is she mentally ill? Is she lazy? What exactly is her story? But Reichardt leaves all these questions unanswered. What we do know is that she's in flight because she can't handle or cope with a system which itself refuses to cope with her. Wounded by the world, her sad response is to then exit it. Worse still, despite the meagre acts of kindness thrown her way, society as a whole is structured such that it actively forces Wendys out, like a disease or infection slowly being purged. Meanwhile, the great doctors deny the presence of any illness.Throughout the film, Reichardt practically baits us into damning Wendy based on contemporary conceptions of worth (typically built upon economic productivity). Nevermind that, creepily, her only companion is an animal. No, her disconnection is her fault! Her dollar value is nil, she acts with impracticality and she deserves expulsion. Sever the life lines. She contributes nothing. She is the allowable, acceptable loss of an entire culture. Right? Like her lost car, friends, family and possessions, society has deemed it cheaper and more practical to scrap Wendy – and the whole social segment she represents – rather than repair the damage. This is an unconscious decision by all of society that is as sinister as the most calculated of atrocities.One of the best things the film does is highlight how ineffectual "altruistic" human relations, rules, bureaucracy and regulations are to someone like Wendy. People offer whatever help they can, and yet she falls through the cracks nevertheless. It's a band aid on a waterfall, set up to create not only mass disavowal, but to reinforce the illusion that once again it's the fault of the deprived; "The safety nets were in place, it's her fault she wasn't caught!" Thankfully, "Wendy" isn't an overtly preachy film. Its only allusions to larger issues are a brief shot of "Sometimes a Great Notion", a class conscious novel by Ken Kesey, and the humming of Carnival Of Venice, possibly alluding to the Venetian celebration in which the poor and rich fraternise, but only with masks. And yet in its own low key way, the film taps into a certain American pulse: familial instability, rootlessness, adrift, sub-social young people, a wide and widening social condition, economic desperation, a society that has no room or need for millions, and the inevitable inequality manufactured by capitalism and "surplus value".Final shot: Wendy in a boxcar, creepily humming the same amiable song she hummed at the start of the film. Earlier she has a frightful encounter with a homeless man, a confrontation with her own scary future. Now she has nothing but her body, and it seems like she's about to, suicidally, abandon that too.8.9/10 - Excellent. Williams plays Lucy with powerful subtlety, allowing you to read her silence.