Little Dog Lost

If you were going to write a parody of an Independent film (yes, with a capital "I"), you might say: "the entire movie is about a girl searching for her lost dog". It sounds like one of those ponderous, self-important tales that opens in New York and L.A. for a week, is praised by Hollywood-hating critics, and then disappears into obscurity. "Wendy and Lucy" fits the bill in one way. Sure enough, the whole film is about a drifter named Wendy (Michelle Williams) stuck in a small Oregon town looking for her lost pooch, Lucy. It's also a surprisingly gripping little movie.

Wendy is awakened one morning by a security guard knocking on her car window. It seems she isn't allowed to sleep in the car in the Walgreens parking lot. When the car refuses to start, the guard, who ends up becoming a friend, helps her push it to a legal parking spot. While waiting for the local garage to open, Wendy decides to shoplift some breakfast from the local supermarket. She is nabbed by an overzealous clerk and sent to the police station for processing. Meanwhile, Lucy is still tied up outside the market. When Wendy returns hours later, you guessed it, Lucy's gone.

We don't learn much about Wendy. In fact, we know about as much about her as we do about Lucy. We know she's on her way to Alaska in search of work at a fish cannery. We learn through a phone call that she's estranged from her sister. And above all we know she's on a tight budget. That's about it. We don't know why she's on the road, where she comes from or why she's alone. All of which may have helped elevate the story even further.

For most of the film, Wendy exhausts all her options searching for Lucy, while trying to get her car fixed and to survive on seemingly no cash. One by one, as events unfold, we see Wendy's hopes - already so delicately in balance - begin to unravel. Clocking in at an ascetic 75 minutes, "Wendy" is the film equivalent of a good novella (in fact, it's based on one: "Train Choir" by Jon Raymond, who also wrote the script). There's no swelling strings, no explosions, no big epiphany. Just small, skillful filmmaking, courtesy of director Kelly Reichardt ("Old Joy"), and equally skillful acting from Michelle Williams. The entire story is told through Wendy's face, and Ms. Williams - always reliable in supporting roles - carries the film effortlessly on her shoulders. Just watch one particularly terrifying night in the woods shot almost entirely in close-up on Wendy's eyes.

So yes, "Wendy and Lucy" is about a girl searching for her lost dog. Thanks to an unyielding ending, and Ms. Williams' raw nerve of a performance, it's also, to continue the cliché, about so much more.