Michelle Williams Didn't Think Anyone Was Going To See Wendy And Lucy
For the past few decades, Michelle Williams has made a name for herself in this wild industry as one of the best actors of her generation. She's worked with Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine"), Martin Scorsese ("Shutter Island"), and, most recently, the great Steven Spielberg ("The Fabelmans"), but in my eyes, some of her most affecting work has been while under the guise of director Kelly Reichardt ("First Cow").
Few contemporary filmmakers have been able to capture empathy in the way that Reichardt has. Her films tell so much about the unspoken terrors, triumphs, and rules of a silently decaying American landscape with such a pointed precision, with one of her most heartbreaking being "Wendy and Lucy." The 2008 minimalist drama follows Wendy, a woman who has found herself stranded in Oregon while on her trek to Alaska with her adorable dog Lucy. We don't really know much about where she came from or who she was before we catch up with her journey, but in being forced to put yourself in her shoes, we're witness to all of the ways in which everyday townsfolk either make things unnecessarily difficult or offer a helping hand.
While revisiting the momentous stages of her career for Vanity Fair, Williams talks about how a film like "Wendy and Lucy" featured the kind of role she has been searching for, even if she initially believed that there wasn't a huge audience for it:
"It was a six-person crew. But it was precisely like the arrow on the target of the kind of work that I wanted to be doing, the kind of work that I had always wanted to do. And then here I was, even though nobody cared about it."
'You're really just kind of doing it for yourself'
On her way to stardom, Williams had familiarized herself with the breath of independent cinema, along with Reichardt's previous two features, which is exactly what drew her to the project. To this day, she's happily taken aback when folks compliment her on her "Wendy and Lucy" performance:
"It's still maybe the movie that when people come up to me and they say that they love 'Wendy and Lucy,' it has a really special place in my heart because you don't really make a movie like that thinking really anybody's gonna see it. You're really just kind of doing it for yourself. And it really, I think, announced Kelly as the filmmaker that she is."
The commonality within all of Reichardt's work is this aching feeling of living in the moment. The scene where Wendy is caught shoplifting dog food in a local supermarket is not filtered with a harrowing score or an intense close-up, but the brutally quiet dread of a desperate woman trapped in the company of those who value policy over humanity. A traveler with so little money to her name as is, finds herself pushed back even further. She doesn't break down, but horrifically accepts the hand she's been dealt because she's used to it. That's one of many reasons why Williams' performance continues to be so revered.
Reichardt's filmography may not consist of moneymakers, but their worth, especially with Williams in the front seat, is richer than any box office total. It's no wonder the pair have only continued to work together with "Meek's Cutoff," "Certain Women," and the upcoming "Showing Up."
"Wendy and Lucy" is currently streaming on Peacock, Tubi, and Kanopy.