I was greatly looking forward to this film, because I love Michelle Williams' acting and because it had received some ecstatic reviews. What a disappointment! The absence of any back-story or motivation for her character, plus the inexplicable and contradictory choices she makes, result in a film experience that winds up being infuriating. I left the theater fuming.
Some questions I wish I could ask Kelly Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond:
1) If Wendy is careful enough to keep a running tally of her expenses, and she has over $500 before the car repair that she thinks will cost around $300, why does she risk shoplifting a couple of cans of dog food?
2) Why doesn't she complain immediately that something needs to be done with her dog while she's in police custody? The way her mention of Lucy comes as an after-thought, as if she's forgotten her until the moment she sees her out the back window of the police car, is just not credible. No dog owner, especially one who depends on her pet as her only source of emotional support, would behave that way!
3) Wendy's anomie and lack of affect needed some kind of explanation to make her bearable to watch. If we hadn't seen her keeping track of her expenses, a logical conclusion would have been that she was mentally impaired, which I don't think was intended. If she was supposed to be some kind of slacker Everywoman, she needed either more street smarts or a reason why she lacked them.
4) If my tally is correct, Wendy had just under $500 at the end of the film, since the car mechanic had agreed to settle her bill for just $30. So why is her only option to hop a freight car? Nothing we've been shown about Wendy argues that she has the skills to survive such a rough and dangerous course of action. Why doesn't she get a job flipping burgers in the town she's in? Or try to find a ride to Alaska?
5) Although her final scene with Lucy made me tear up, I was also angered by it. She bases her decision to leave Lucy on the fact that the yard is "nice" and that the elderly man she sees leaving the house also looks nice. If you were going to leave your beloved dog behind, wouldn't you want to know a little more about the person taking care of her? And wouldn't you want to get his phone number so you could check up on her and, with luck, come back for her?? Again, her behavior is absolutely not credible.
All in all, an unforgivably sloppy piece of work and a huge waste of Michelle Williams' talent and the audience's time.
Some questions I wish I could ask Kelly Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond:
1) If Wendy is careful enough to keep a running tally of her expenses, and she has over $500 before the car repair that she thinks will cost around $300, why does she risk shoplifting a couple of cans of dog food?
2) Why doesn't she complain immediately that something needs to be done with her dog while she's in police custody? The way her mention of Lucy comes as an after-thought, as if she's forgotten her until the moment she sees her out the back window of the police car, is just not credible. No dog owner, especially one who depends on her pet as her only source of emotional support, would behave that way!
3) Wendy's anomie and lack of affect needed some kind of explanation to make her bearable to watch. If we hadn't seen her keeping track of her expenses, a logical conclusion would have been that she was mentally impaired, which I don't think was intended. If she was supposed to be some kind of slacker Everywoman, she needed either more street smarts or a reason why she lacked them.
4) If my tally is correct, Wendy had just under $500 at the end of the film, since the car mechanic had agreed to settle her bill for just $30. So why is her only option to hop a freight car? Nothing we've been shown about Wendy argues that she has the skills to survive such a rough and dangerous course of action. Why doesn't she get a job flipping burgers in the town she's in? Or try to find a ride to Alaska?
5) Although her final scene with Lucy made me tear up, I was also angered by it. She bases her decision to leave Lucy on the fact that the yard is "nice" and that the elderly man she sees leaving the house also looks nice. If you were going to leave your beloved dog behind, wouldn't you want to know a little more about the person taking care of her? And wouldn't you want to get his phone number so you could check up on her and, with luck, come back for her?? Again, her behavior is absolutely not credible.
All in all, an unforgivably sloppy piece of work and a huge waste of Michelle Williams' talent and the audience's time.