Wendy and Lucy (2008) More at IMDbPro »

Hoping to find a job in a fishing cannery in Alaska, Wendy (Michelle Williams), a drifter in her twenties, travels to the Pacific Northwest from her home in Muncie, Indiana with her most endearing companion, a golden Labrador Retriever named Lucy, whom she calls Loo. Looking masculine with a short haircut, a flannel shirt and a sweatshirt with a hood, Wendy seems aimless yet she is believable when expressing a desire for stability to a group of itinerant drifters at a campsite. Co-written by Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt's deeply affecting Wendy and Lucy, like her 2006 film Old Joy, combines an intimate personal story with a reflection of the malaise felt in the country today, her economic hardship typical of people adrift in a society in which they no longer feel a part.

The film is set near the Oregon/Washington border in a small town that, with its roadside strip malls, gas stations, car repair garages, and convenience stores, is reflective of rural American cities and towns that have lost the character that once made them unique. As the film opens, Wendy plays with Lucy in the Oregon woods - the only sounds heard are Wendy humming a melancholy song. While sleeping in her 1988 Honda on Walgreen's property, she is awakened by a security guard (Wally Dalton) who tells her to move on but discovers that her car will not start. On a limited budget, she is shaken when the repair amount confirmed by the town mechanic (Will Patton) is greater than expectations. Trying to save some money, Wendy makes a serious mistake by stealing dog food at a grocery store.

Unable to convince a smug teenage clerk to give her a break, Wendy leaves Lucy tied to a post outside the market while she is taken to jail on a shoplifting charge. When released after paying a fine that costs considerably more than the dog food, she discovers that Lucy has disappeared and the film's focus turns to Wendy's frantic and lonely search for her beloved dog. As she pays a visit to the local pound and looks for Loo around the town, a mood of profound emptiness pervades the deserted streets revealing the number of young people that have moved away.

Assisted by the Walgreens security guard who lets her use his cell phone to call the pound and leave his number as a call back, Wendy is hopeful after posting signs all over town but the waiting drains her energy and her run-in with a deranged homeless man while sleeping in the woods frightens her to the core. Seeking some solace, she calls her brother in Indiana but meets only indifference, his girlfriend in the background asking what it is that she wants now. Not deterred, Wendy's spirit and determination allows us to recognize that the fight for self worth is not limited by material possessions or the opinion of others. Reminiscent of the Dardenne Brothers' ability to capture the emotional anguish of young people, Wendy and Lucy establishes Reichardt as one of the premier indie filmmakers in the U.S. today.