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Wendy and Lucy
EMAILPRINTOscilloscope Pictures
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 38 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Jon Raymond
Kelly Reichardt
Directed by: Kelly Reichardt
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 10, 2008
DVD: May 5, 2009
Running Time: 80 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language
Starring Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Larry Fessenden, Will Oldham, Walter Dalton, and John Robinson
Wendy Carroll is driving to Ketchikan, Alaska, in hopes of a summer of lucrative work at the Northwestern Fish cannery, and the start of a new life with her dog, Lucy. When her car breaks down in Oregon, however, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she confronts a series of increasingly dire economic decisions, with far-ranging repercussions for herself and Lucy. Wendy and Lucy addresses issues of sympathy and generosity at the edges of American life, revealing the limits and depths of people's duty to each other in tough times. (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Improbably, it's one of the most affecting films of the year, which once again demonstrates that all you need to make a good movie is talent.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Wendy and Lucy is modest, minimalist. But it nonetheless reverberates like a sonic boom.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's a tender, tough, uncompromising film, photographed with a disarming directness and seeming simplicity that looks almost naked next to the dramatic constructions of most films. It just makes her precariousness all the more real.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
This is where the movie excels. In the classic neo-realist tradition, it's scant in plot yet rich in mood and character, offering us a revealing hint here, a poignant glimpse there, with each revelation filtered through Michelle Williams's superbly muted performance, all the more moving for being so restrained.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Wendy and Lucy is like "Lassie Come Home" directed by Antonioni. What's piercing about it, and also disturbing, is that Reichardt views the renunciation of society with something close to righteous purity -- as a lefty romantic dream.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Having the dog around raises the emotional stakes tenfold, and develops a kinship with Vittorio De Sica's Italian neo-realist classic "Umberto D.," which also revealed societal ills through a poignant dog-owner relationship
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The film is exquisitely realized, with a tremendous, naturalistic performance by Michelle Williams at its heart and a pervasive, assuring sense that Reichardt and Raymond have distilled everything nonessential from their story and imparted exactly the impact they wished.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Sam Adams
Williams' performance is remarkable not only for its depth but for its stillness.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
What will happen to her? The strength of this short, simple, perfect story of a young woman and her dog is that this does not seem, by the end, to be an idle or trivial question. What happens to Wendy -- and to Lucy -- matters a lot, which is to say that Wendy and Lucy, for all its modesty, matters a lot too.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Trembling throughout on the verge of a tearful breakdown, but far too dignified to allow her character to choke up, Williams delivers a sensationally nuanced performance that, were it not so resolutely undramatic, would constitute an aria of stoical misery.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
An evocative film with a believable and subtly enthralling lead performance that gets deeply under your skin.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Another illustration of how absorbing a film can be when the plot doesn't stand between us and a character.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Wendy Carroll is a character we rarely see in movies anymore, a woman left alone with her thoughts. That a moviegoer would care what she's thinking testifies to the power in Williams's brand of solitude.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Within the confines of this minimalist picture, there are sequences so vital, timely and of-the-moment, so powerful and well-observed and precise, the effect can be emotionally overwhelming.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
In a minimalist film of muted emotions, Michelle Williams gives as lovely a performance as a moviegoer could ask for.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Reichardt is a tremendously conscientious filmmaker, and not out to torture the audience. Yes, this is a fraught and agonizing story, but the way it ends, although heartbreaking, is absolutely right.
Read Full Review >Variety Scott Foundas
"Old Joy" helmer Kelly Reichardt plays to her strengths in Wendy and Lucy, a modest yet deeply felt road movie about an idealistic young drifter, her faithful canine and the wide-open spaces of the Pacific Northwest.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Because Wendy and Lucy is so lean on plot and dialogue, there are long spaces to contemplate Wendy and her situation, and the logistics are mind-boggling.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A film that might have seemed faintly academic six months ago becomes an anxious expression of its historical moment.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Too often when actors portray complicated or enigmatic characters, they seem to be flirting with the audience, playing hard to get. Not Williams.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
If a Warner Bros. social-protest film from the early 1930s somehow got into bed with an American indie from the 1970s, how would the love-child turn out? Like this.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Reichardt doesn't so much tell a story as paint a finely detailed portrait of human suffering in this miniature marvel.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The transformation undergone by Michelle Williams to play this role is nothing short of astounding.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Josh Ralske
Reichardt is such a canny filmmaker that one could almost believe that she intentionally leaves Wendy underwritten and a bit of a cipher, because Wendy is far more effective as a bold-faced symbol of the downtrodden than as a fully realized human character.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
She's infuriating, but the movie, for all its morose impassivity, is beautiful and haunting.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Don R. Lewis
Unless you're an antsy movie-goer or have a cold heart, by the end of Wendy and Lucy, you'll be engrossed, hoping for the best possible outcome.
Read Full Review >Washington Post John Anderson
For all its virtues, Wendy and Lucy seems like the most overrated of art movies. Yes, it's obscure and distancing and makes you pay attention. Williams's performance is nuanced, moving and well worth any awards she gets. But Wendy is also anonymous.
Read Full Review >Empire Anna Smith
Slow, ponderous, meticulously rendered realism that will appeal to specific audiences of slow, ponderous, meticulously rendered realism, with a heart.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Staff (Not credited)
Michelle Williams does her best but she cannot prevent Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy, a weak tale about being broke and on the road in rural America, from dwindling into boredom.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Like a worst-case-scenario, indie-movie cliché, Wendy and Lucy throws every bone it can at the screen.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.1 (out of 10) based on 38 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Transporter M. gave it an8:
This is just the kind of film that gives viewer ratings a bad name. I suspect that those who think this film was boring would also think that De Sica's neo-realist masterpiece Umberto D - which it closely resembles - is also boring. It doesn't give critics a bad name to recognize that there are some movies that just can't serve two masters, as many try to do, and which are more like caviar than pizza. For the pizza-only lovers who missed the point of this movie, it is a "tranche de vie" - a slice of life - that poignantly illuminates the triumphs, tragedies, debasement, and, especially, nobility of everyday life.
Jeremy K gave it a2:
Must have played better in the theatre - or not. Nice recap by Andrew. I was emphatically impressed by "Old Joy" and its deft touch of melancholia and wonder. This is in contrast a very silly film whose mundane contrivances and all too overstated sombre simplicity make it feel an empty, patronizing waste of time. Michelle Williams is fine I suppose, I however, found myself more curious about the secret life of the senior, seemngly gentle, journeyman of a security guard. Needless - there's nothing here and let's be generous in calling it a 'noble failure'.
Greg R gave it a3:
Pro: (1)This movie did an effective job of portraying those who don't care about others predicaments. As well as the few who lend a hand to those in need of help: i.e. security guard. (2) I felt Wendy's pain and was compelled to help her. Con: (1)Terrible sound. I would have enjoyed no music compared to the continuous annoyance of somebody humming as well as the droning musical score. (2) Camera work was horrid. Examples: camera man would aim camera at car. Umm, Wendy is over here now, you may wish to pan camera to Wendy. I'm convinced the camera man was distracted by something else during the filming. Another example, the scene in the woods where Wendy was trying to sleep. Some deranged man appears out of nowhere and starts babbling. Ok fine, yes it's scary. Problem is: I couldn't see a darn thing, let alone make out 1 coherent sentence from babbling man. I've never been a fan of completely dark scenes; I find them very annoying. (3) Wendy is destitute, we get it. Let's learn more about her background. Yes, it's actually important for the viewer to understand how/why she is got in this situation. Very weak character development. (4)The movie just ended suddenly, with her giving up her dog, Lucy and hopping on a train. The End. Critics will rave about artistic intentions of the filming techniques and musical score etc.,etc. The fact is, it is popular these days for critics to hump any movie that isn't a hollywood special, regardless of how weak the film actually is.
John B. gave it a1:
This is just the kind of film that gives movie critics a bad name. Widely reviewed by the "experts" as an exceptional film, this thing is a boring mess from start to finish. No story, lifeless acting and a completely nothing of an ending. Absolutely pathetic, and a complete waste of time and money.
J L. gave it a3:
Boring movie. Girl is not very bright.
Rob S. gave it a3:
The acting is good, but the story is pointless. It might has well ended mid-sentence. Did they run out of money and had to just end it?
Andrew gave it a4:
As another viewer noted, this is a companion piece to "Old Joy." However, this one never engaged me. Wendy makes poor choices, the consequences of which are easily foreseen, though apparently she lacks the ability to think one step ahead. OK, so it's a movie about what happens to someone with a hole at her center, the origin of which is unclear, running away from something toward "the last frontier" and probable exploitation, who decides and acts badly with little foresight. But I've seen films about people like her. This one adds nothing. The homeless and drifting are not, as the film tells us, largely harmless, mellow and victimized. Pitiable, yes. But the Pollyannish gloss on what is in general a depressing, predictable tale not only is jarring but offensive. Give "Old Joy" a look if you haven't seen it; it's a much more interesting view of the struggle to grow from adolescence into adulthood, having the same Portland-ish setting.
