Wendy and Lucy (2008)

dir. Kelly Reichardt
writ. Kelly Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond
feat. Michelle Williams

Perhaps appropriately for a film about a woman on the verge of destitution, Wendy and Lucy manages to expose such a life with an economy of words and images (a mere 80 minutes.) Kelly Reichardt returns to the Pacific Northwest, the setting of her previous (also beautifully quiet and fulfilling) feature, Old Joy, this time to tell the tale of a woman and her dog, Wendy and Lucy respectively.

Wendy is heading to Alaska, though we never know why, presumably to start a new life where she hears "they need people." It doesn't matter why she's going, only that she's struggling to get there or anywhere. A broken down car traps her somewhere in the outskirts of Portland, Oregon where while trying to keep her minimal funds, she winds up in jail and losing Lucy. As her situation worsens still, she is trapped in an unfamiliar town without friends or resources.

Michelle Williams completely embodies her role of a young woman on the brink of disaster, strong and independent but nearly lost, with just one friend in the world and that one gone missing. And while the film suffers a bit for falling into what has become a slacker-road-movie formula (alternately vindictive, friendly, and dubious strangers; violent threats that plays out unexpectedly,) the final scenes transcend such material, defining new metaphors for love and loss and leaving the viewer haunted and wondering what may come next for Wendy and Lucy.