This is minimalist film-making at it's finest. A message film in the most subtle of ways. On the surface it's a simple, beautifully told story of a young woman falling apart due to economic crisis as she is looking for her lost dog. But writer/director Kelly Reichardt imbues her film with this underlying look at the self-centeredness at America. She's not saying that every single person is worthless (there's a wonderful subplot with an old man who helps Wendy), but that the average American is just too focused on their own selves to not even notice this innocent, decent young woman who is falling apart. People walk by and see her sleeping in her car but instead of thinking of what they can do to help, they just laugh and keep walking. Even a seemingly decent person like the mechanic Wendy takes her car to when it brakes down, doesn't notice how far down she is. Or maybe he just doesn't really care.
Maybe it would be different if Wendy was openly looking for help, but she isn't. On the inside she is completely falling apart, but she puts on this front of indifference as if everything is alright with her. She tries to reach out to her sister and her husband, but they immediately act as if calling them is begging for a handout so she falls back on the lie that everything is fine in her life. But if you look at her for more than five minutes, you can tell that things are far from decent. Stories like this happen every day and no one bothers to realize it. Throughout the film you can hear, or see a few times, a train rolling through the scene and passing on. Reichardt uses this to symbolize the fact that America just rolls on by people like Wendy who are in such a state of decay, but they are moving too fast to stop and notice that she exists, let alone what a poor state she's in. It's a remarkably intelligent film under the veil of a beautiful story of a woman losing her dog.
Reichardt's remarkably subtle, intuitive direction leads this film but it would have been nothing without Michelle Williams' revelatory performance. She brings all of these emotions of anger, depression and even joy at the end right underneath the surface, but then holds them just below. It takes a highly skilled actor to make you instantly realize what's going on inside of them, without allowing themself to pour all of that out. So in the moment where she does breakdown externally, it makes for a much more severe impact than if she had been crying the entire film.
I personally found Wendy to be a very relatable character. She's an isolated, lonely person but she's that way because she chose to be. It's not that she thinks all people are worthless, but the people she meets are just so self-centered and uninteresting that she doesn't bother taking the time to try and become friends with them. And likewise, they don't take the time to notice anything about her. Instead she has friendship in her one true companion, her dog Lucy. So at the beginning of the film when she loses Lucy, I wept in sadness. And at the end, when they are finally reunited, I wept with joy.
Maybe it would be different if Wendy was openly looking for help, but she isn't. On the inside she is completely falling apart, but she puts on this front of indifference as if everything is alright with her. She tries to reach out to her sister and her husband, but they immediately act as if calling them is begging for a handout so she falls back on the lie that everything is fine in her life. But if you look at her for more than five minutes, you can tell that things are far from decent. Stories like this happen every day and no one bothers to realize it. Throughout the film you can hear, or see a few times, a train rolling through the scene and passing on. Reichardt uses this to symbolize the fact that America just rolls on by people like Wendy who are in such a state of decay, but they are moving too fast to stop and notice that she exists, let alone what a poor state she's in. It's a remarkably intelligent film under the veil of a beautiful story of a woman losing her dog.
Reichardt's remarkably subtle, intuitive direction leads this film but it would have been nothing without Michelle Williams' revelatory performance. She brings all of these emotions of anger, depression and even joy at the end right underneath the surface, but then holds them just below. It takes a highly skilled actor to make you instantly realize what's going on inside of them, without allowing themself to pour all of that out. So in the moment where she does breakdown externally, it makes for a much more severe impact than if she had been crying the entire film.
I personally found Wendy to be a very relatable character. She's an isolated, lonely person but she's that way because she chose to be. It's not that she thinks all people are worthless, but the people she meets are just so self-centered and uninteresting that she doesn't bother taking the time to try and become friends with them. And likewise, they don't take the time to notice anything about her. Instead she has friendship in her one true companion, her dog Lucy. So at the beginning of the film when she loses Lucy, I wept in sadness. And at the end, when they are finally reunited, I wept with joy.