Wendy and Lucy follows the story of a young woman named Wendy who has only a few dollars and an old car (where she sleeps at night) to get her and her companion, a dog named Lucy, to a new life in Alaska. When her car breaks down in Oregon and Lucy is lost, Wendy is forced to stay put while she tries to figure out a way to fix her car, find her friend, and simply survive.

What we witness here is just a chapter of Wendy and Lucy’s lives. The audience knows very little about what has occurred before and virtually nothing about what happens after the sequence of events in this story. However, as a true testament to the power of this film, we are more than eager to find out. Why? Because we come to truly feel for the characters as we are taken along on an emotional journey filled with hardship, determination, and achingly-realistic revelations.

Director Kelly Reichardt doesn’t bog down the film with complex shots and angles, nor does she overshoot the emotion with hackneyed speeches or overly-dramatic scenes. In many cases, Reichardt lets the silence do the work, which does more to convey a thought or feeling than pages of dialogue and direction ever could. It is a minimalist-style film that works very well with the characters and the subject matter.

Michelle Williams’s portrayal of Wendy is superb. Wendy is neither needy nor foolish. She does what she needs to do, as hard or as risky as it may be, and deals with the consequences. She is level-headed, but, like anyone else, there is always a breaking point. After all, she is human – she gets scared, overwhelmed, frustrated, and tired … very tired.

Wendy’s interactions with Lucy the dog appear wholly genuine and full with real affection, which was very important to establish early on as their relationship and is what drives the plot of this story. Williams and her canine co-star convince us that there is a definite bond between the two. We believe their feelings, and stir up quite a few of our own in the process.

The supporting actors play their parts realistically. Will Patton as The Mechanic and Wally Dalton as The Security Guard represent two kinds of people you are most likely to meet on the type of road Lucy and Wendy travel. Wendy and Lucy interacting with a group of homeless youths at the railroad tracks is a significant and well-executed scene. Although the scene is quite short, I was completely convinced by the actors’ portrayals – I felt as though I was watching a documentary. The director and actors could not have done a better job during that sequence to set up the mood and atmosphere of the rest of the film.

Interesting enough, the themes and issues touched upon in this film coincide almost too-perfectly with the current economic situation. More and more, people are finding themselves down-on-their-luck, and while sympathy and kindness still exists in some small way, we realize and understand that everyone out there are trying to survive in their own ways. Even so, the smallest act of charity sometimes does make the biggest difference. Wendy and Lucy come across a few people who demonstrate their ability and potential to aid her or impair her, as well as those who reveal their own needs for help themselves.

Another subject that gets your right in the gut is the issue of choice, particularly when the best choice is often the most difficult one to make – when you lose no matter what the decision is. Wendy is a character that we can tell has had to face these kinds of choices for quite a while now, but we realize that, even with time, these decisions never get any easier.

Wendy and Lucy is a hard-hitting tale that forces us to reflect on our own lives. It also urges us to see those who live in comparable circumstances in a less judgmental and non-stereotypical light.