Product Details

• Actors: Michelle Williams, Will Oldham, Will Patton, Walter Dalton, Larry Fessenden
• Directors: Kelly Reichardt
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Oscilloscope
• DVD Release Date: May 5, 2009
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001EUSYIA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,246 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Wendy and Lucy" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Kelly Reichardt’s second feature, Wendy and Lucy, has even more Pacific Northwest piney quietude than her debut Old Joy, since its starring couple is a canine-human pair rather than a male duo. Will Oldham again makes a charged appearance, this time as Icky (Will Oldham), a grungy, train-hopping punk. Based on a short story, this time Jonathan Raymond’s "Train Choir," Wendy and Lucy’s dialogue is a sparse spattering amongst long, languid scenes that moodily portray a young woman, Wendy (Michelle Williams), suffering economic crisis and road trip malaise on her way to work Alaskan fishing boats. The bulk of the story takes place in Portland, where her Honda breaks down and she must engage the local mechanic (Will Patton) and Walgreen’s security guard (Wally Dalton) for honest advice and for help finding her dog, Lucy, who disappears during one of Wendy’s disasters. Wendy and Lucy would aptly be titled Wendy’s Bad Day, as problems pile up due to one main misstep. Williams does a great job portraying a woman who is semi self-sufficient but clueless in the art of survival. As the film speaks to many young people who have been broke and stranded, one will inevitably wonder why Wendy makes the unwise choices she does, for example sleeping in a dangerous area along a train track instead of finding a safer campground, or wandering the streets looking for her lost pooch in lieu of hunkering down for a temporary part-time job. The film straddles the line between social realism and fantasy in this regard, provoking frustration during certain plot twists. However, Wendy and Lucy is a pleasure to look at for its grainy greenery, hypnotic, sweeping landscape and train yard shots, and for the story, when it centers on developing the deep bond between a lady and her dog. --Trinie Dalton

Product Description

WENDY AND LUCY - DVD Movie

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Succinctly and mourningly poetic, March 2, 2009

By 

Rustin Parr "Rustin Parr" (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wendy and Lucy (DVD)

Michelle Williams delivers a very understated performance as a down-on-her-luck Wendy, who brings her loyal dog, Lucy, along with her to a journey for a supposed prosperity. It is a very quiet and subtle performance that, Wendy, with little money and no dog food, and an incident which prompts her to lose Lucy, meshes along with her surroundings: a dry and monotone small town, where the sun shines to merely beat down the lumbering, sluggish skins of the inhabitants.This is a very important work, especially in light of today's economic situation: "You need an address to get an address, and you need a job to get a job." succinctly says the kind-hearted security guard who provides help to Wendy during her descent into financial and emotional ruins. "Wendy and Lucy", directed by Kelly Reichardt, emphasizes the many possibilities that are available to an individual by virtue of how everything could be wiped away by being in a little mishap that triggers a chain of unfortunate events, each worse than the previous ones. The dire circumstances that Wendy finds herself in may not be grandiose or explosive, but her plight is all the more heartbreaking and terrifying: just a few more dollars for a bag of dog food for Lucy would have made all the difference. Along with "The Wrestler", though this one is on a simpler and quieter scale, "Wendy and Lucy" is visual poetry that examines a broken and fragile character that perseveres through life's many disappointments. Very ethereal and melancholic; it is simply beautiful.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A heartbreaking portrayal of true suffering..., May 21, 2009

By 

Andrew Ellington (I'm kind of everywhere) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Wendy and Lucy (DVD)

Sometimes simple can say so much, and that is the case with this independent gem. `Wendy and Lucy' quite simple tells the story of Wendy and Lucy, a young woman and her dog. Wendy is virtually homeless, sleeping in her car as she makes her way to Alaska where she feels her life will be better. Lucy is her faithful `yellow gold' dog who sticks by her side and proves to be the only sunlight in Wendy's life. The film opens with Wendy and Lucy walking through the woods playing fetch as a consistent and almost tranquil hum embeds itself in our ears and it is that simple imagery that tells us all we need to know about Wendy.

Without Lucy, she is lost.

The film doesn't have much plot depth, for it can be summed up in one sentence:

"Wendy loses Lucy and desperately tries to find her."

Trying to cast the film off as nothing more than that though is a shame, since despite the shallow plot points the film has such rich depth of character here. The real story is not Wendy's attempt to find Lucy but WHY Wendy must find Lucy. There is a statement on the back of the DVD that makes the accusation that the reason this film has an R rating is that censors don't want children to realize that people are lonely and that life is not always peachy. Well, honestly, this film is rated R for the F-words that are spoken (sure, there aren't a LOT, but there are more than 3); but I think that there lies some truth in that statement as well. We (and by we, I mean the general adult public) try so hard today to shield our children from pain that we don't prepare them enough for the actuality of that said pain. When they come face to face with the harsh realities of the world outside they may, sadly, be unable to cope with it. I'm not saying that allowing your children to watch this particular film is going to help them be better able to tackle life's eventual hard-times, but I do feel that more films like this need to be made, with a lighter rating (no need for the language at all here) in order to instill in children the need for a thick skin in this often grim society.

Life is not always peachy; in fact, it rarely ever is.

Michelle Williams is a revelation here, sinking so far into her character that she becomes in recognizable. The way her face contorts when she is hearing the worst news ever (just watch the way she crumbles with subtlety when she is hearing about her car) is just so soul reaching. She is the opposite of showy but she never fails to touch us. We understand why she needs to find Lucy because we can see in her eyes, in her mannerisms, in her voice that this dog is all she has left to hold onto. There are few films that require an actor or actress to carry every scene, and when that film comes along it takes a special actress to actually do just that.

Michelle Williams does JUST that.

The film is not going to be for everyone. With the simple plot progression some will find this boring, but that is a shame in my opinion. These small films are very important in getting to understand ourselves inside and out. `Wendy and Lucy' has been hailed as one of the best films of 2008, and I agree wholeheartedly. It is a story that will touch your heart with its honesty and sincerity. `Marley and Me' may have been a sweet and touching story of a family touched by the life of a dog, but `Wendy and Lucy' is an even more honest and poignant depiction of the deep-seated need for friendship and loyalty in ones life; even if it's from a dog.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Williams shines in underwritten part, May 16, 2009

By 

Roland E. Zwick (Valencia, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wendy and Lucy (DVD)

***1/2

In the almost aggressively noncommercial "Wendy and Lucy," Michelle Williams plays Wendy Carroll, a cash-strapped young woman who's driving from Indiana to Alaska in search of a job. Riding shotgun with her is a yellow German Shepard mix by the name of Lucy, the most reliable and trustworthy companion any drifter could possibly wish for. Wendy's situation goes from bad to worse when the beat-up `88 Honda Accord she's driving breaks down in a small town in Oregon and, not long after, Lucy herself goes missing. Wendy spends a sizable portion of the movie simply searching for the dog, while she endeavors to survive on an ever-dwindling supply of cash.

That's about all the "plot" there is to "Wendy and Lucy," which is more of a stripped-down, slice-of-life mood piece than an actual drama. Writers Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichardt focus almost exclusively on the moment-by-moment struggles Wendy goes through as she attempts to make her way through the world, sans money and virtually all meaningful contact with other human beings. Director Reichardt recounts Wendy's plight with an air of noncommittal detachment, allowing the drama to arise organically out of the simple observation of daily life. There isn't even a musical score to help heighten the drama or tug at the heartstrings.

While I admire what Raymond and Reichardt are attempting to do in "Wendy and Lucy," the fact of the matter is that the movie is almost too "small" for its own good (even in its running time, a mere 80 minutes). Without a sufficient back story to help explain how Wendy ended up in this predicament - and what, if anything, she is running away from - the movie fails to register the kind of emotional and psychological impact it might have had we gotten to know Wendy better. As it is, she remains an intriguing but frustratingly superficial character throughout.

There is, however, one very good reason for checking out "Wendy and Lucy," and that is the tour de force performance by Williams, an actress who, up to this point, has done extraordinarily fine work in secondary roles (the most noteworthy being Heath Ledger's wife in "Brokeback Mountain"), but who has never been called upon to "carry" a whole feature film on her own - until now. The good news is that she proves herself more than equal to the task, imbuing Wendy with a believable amalgam of strengths and vulnerabilities, along with an innate intelligence that serves the character well in the situation in which she finds herself. Williams is richly complemented by Wally Dalton as a compassionate bank guard who offers Wendy the hand of friendship when she needs it most.

Stripped down to the barest essentials of dramaturgy and filmmaking, "Wendy and Lucy" is an "art film" in both the best and worst senses of that term.