Fresh and Exciting

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It always amazes me how a $200,000.00 low budget movie can move me more that a $200,000,000.00 computer generated piece of crap!!!! This "little" movie obviously is a prime example...You can actually feel the desperation and subtle panic in Michelle Williams' character in the market and garage. The scene with Lucy towards the end is heart-wrenching. Michelle Williams will win an Oscar someday!!! Great Little movie.......Great Little Movie......Great Little Movie......Great Little Movie......Great Little Movie....Great Little Movie......Great Little Movie......Great little Movie.......Great Little Movie...Sorry for so many "Great Little Movie" statements but I had to have a minimum of 10 Lines!!!

Yes it does a good job of showing how quickly one can go from a shoestring budget to completely homeless with virtually nothing but the clothes on one's back. Relevant yes. Minimalist yes. Alas, minimalist does not always mean good. Sure, lack of soundtrack definitely does highlight her loneliness. Poorly written detour point and story though, probably by someone who has never had a dog they truly loved and depended on to keep them sane when everything else in their life has "gone to the dogs.". Having gone through the loss of my own canine emotional support, I know it is immediately traumatizing, and obsession with finding the pet can overtake everything else, but that doesn't excuse the idiotic things this girl does, and she doesn't seem particularly obsessed anyway. I don't see that she was so upset she was in shock, so I can only concur with one of the other reviewers that this girl seems emotionally stunted and lacking in basic street intelligence. She can walk all over the damn place, but when she's already had to spend money she hadn't planned on (tow plus fine), that's when she starts buying coffee and donuts and paying for taxis when she could surely have gotten within walking distance of the foster house by taking a bus! If she could spend this now, why shoplift and start the whole dang tumble down the hill? Not to mention that if your dog cab handle dry food, you don't suddenly introduce wet (canned) food unless you want a diarrhea fest in your car later on. Dry dog food also isn't THAT expensive if you're just trying to keep your pup alive for a couple weeks till you get where you're going, so why not just buy the stuff? And who isn't aware that a dozen aluminum cans will earn you a whole, hmm, maybe two cents? Sorry, but the glaringly poor view of how stupid the "average" person is when they're down to their last $500 is just inexcusable, not to mention her lack of real emotional reaction to the missing dog. I saw emotion for about 3 seconds at the chain link fence, and that's it. Sure, crying about it prior to that wouldn't directly accomplish anything, but it certainly would have been more realistic to have her have a moment when she's got to just let it all out than just "oh, now I have to look for my dog, one more thing that's holding up my journey."

After having massively enjoyed watching the first season of Dawsons Creek in my teens, (which holds the unique honour of being the only TV season boxset,that I watched from the beginning to the end in one sitting!)I made sure to keep checking every so often to see what projects the actors were now making.When I finished watching James Van Der Beeks very good performance in the excellent jet-black comedy The Rules of Attrection,and I started to hear that Katie Holme had been cast in the new Batman film,my first through was that these two would be the main break out stars of the series.However,just as Batman Begins was about to come out,I noticed that people were starting to talk about a film that Michelle Williams was co-starring in,which seemed to be a small, low-budget film called Brokeback Mountain...The plot:Whilst Wendy (who only has her dog Lucy for a companion) is on her way for an important job interview,her car suddenly breaks down in the middle of nowhere.Realising that the town is completely dead at night,Wendy decides to sleep in the car and wait until morning.Almost as soon as the sun has risen,a security guard knocks on the car doors to tell,Wendy that she needs to move the car,due to it blocking a road.With the guard and Wendy having moved the car,Wendy decides to ask the guard if there is a near by supermarket,so that she can get some dog food for Lucy.Tieing up Lucy next to the supermarket,Wendy goes to get some tins of food for Lucy.As she gets nearer the till,Wendy begins to realise that she has to not waste a single penny that she has got on her.Which leads Wendy to deciding that she has to shoplift the food.Unluckally for her,she is easily spotted and taken to the police, to spend the whole night in jail.Having been released from the cell,Wendy goes rushing back to the supermarket,and discovers to her horror that Lucy is no longer there.With the kind help of the security guard,Wendy is able to get in contact with a local animal shelter (who tell her that they will keep an eye out for Lucy) and a near by car repair shop.But now,with her money more limited then ever,Wendy begins to wonder if there is anyway possible that she can afford for the car to get repaired,and pay for the food and blankets that she and Lucy will desperately need..View on the film:The first thing that caught my attention about the film was the astonishing performance from Michelle Williams as Wendy,who has taken the character in the complete opposite direction of her "high maintenance" character in Dawsons Creek.Williams makes the character someone that is very easy to relate to,even for people who have only ever had to face half the problems, that she faces in the film.This is helped by Williams brilliantly changing her physical appearance,which really helps to show how much Wendy is trying to keep her life moving,even when it seems that the world is determined to keep her on the outskirts of society.Along with Williams,Lucy the dog also gives a very good performance,with the way she interacts with Wendy being very natural,and helping to give a strong sense of companionship for Wendy.Although the screenplay does have a bit of an out-of-place, small sub-plot with a tramp which feels out of place,the main centre of the screenplay by writer/director Kelly Reichardt and Jon Raymond (who also wrote the short story Train Choir:which is the story that the film is based on)put the film into a painfully real reality,with Reichardt gritty,very grainy look helping to complement the fantastic screenplay in making a film that has only a hand full of characters,look like a place that you could easily find yourself in. Final view on the film:An amazing,grainy film,with a stunning performance by Williams and brilliant directing from Reichardt.

So I watched 2008's indy gem Wendy and Lucy. This movie is the feel good dog movie of the last decade. It is lighthearted, comical, and very easy to watch much like Benji. Wait that's not true in fact this movie is the opposite of that. However, is this movie good, yyyy..yy.yyy.eee.aaa.ssss. Sorry, that's yes I started to cry again. Which unless you are made of stone you will do periodically throughout this movie. It's not a good idea to describe the plot at all (which I am not prone to do anyways), but just to say this movie is very narrowly focused, dealing with the relationship of a homeless girl and her dog. This is a very low budget film, but it doesn't need special effects just demands strong acting from the lead role of Wendy played beautifully by Michelle Williams. This movie sheds a spotlight on several issues including homelessness, the struggles of being gainfully employed in tough times, the loss of someone we love, and the tough decisions we must make sometimes in life. This movie is not for everyone, but if you are an animal lover, an indy lover, or a lover of good and original cinema, get out the tissues and get ready to ball your eyes out you won't be disappointed.