#6 - Wendy & Lucy
directed by Kelly Reichardt
This was a wow moment for me. It's rare for an American film to be this...simple; and yet so profoundly moving. Michelle Williams (I done bragged about her, just scroll down a tad to read that) is Wendy; an Indiana drifter who has packed up everything she owns, filled her wallet with her last $600 or so and has headed off across the country to Alaska. She's seeking a job at a fishing cannery because she's heard about the good pay. Along for the ride is her only friend, an adorable Yellow Lab mix named Lucy (played wonderfully by director Kelly Reichardt's dog).
There's a lot we don't know about Wendy. There's a bandage on her leg for a wound that's never discussed. Is she running from something? Is she running too something? None of this is discernible from the film. And it's a better movie for it.
When I saw it at the AFI festival, director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy) said that, while based on a short story, it was also based on her experience of encountering a Hispanic woman who was stranded along side the road with a dead car and no cell phone. Ms. Reichardt said she was inspired because we forget that there are people out there who don't possess the modern amenities that many of us consider everyday items. What happens to those people when life takes a challenging turn? Wendy & Lucy is that answer.
The film is casually-paced, but thanks to assured direction is actually suspenseful. Williams creates such a likable, vulnerable character that you can't help but worry for her everytime she either makes a bad decision or something bad happens to her. And bad thing do happen. Wendy's perserverence in the face of trouble is the crux of the film. Without Williams, I fear the film could have been the stuff of Lifetime. With her assured lead performance, it is, instead, one of the best portrayals of a life lived on the edge of poverty that I've seen in quite some time.
#5 - Rachel Getting Married
directed by Jonathan Demme
God bless Jonathan Demme. Where has he been? He's still been working, but concentrating on documentaries for the last several years (Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains, Neil Young: Heart of Gold). And that's good. His previous outings in the narrative world have been lacking. The Manchurian Candidate was okay, but utterly unnecessary considering the brilliance of the original. We should probably just leave The Truth About Charlie out of the conversation altogether. So, his recent spate of documentaries may be the very thing that's lent him the light hand that he used in creating Rachel Getting Married.
Shot with handheld cameras (frequently manned by the cast itself), Rachel is the story of Kym - a young woman on a weekend break from inpatient rehab to attend her sister's wedding. Kym is not an easy person to like - and that's what makes centering the film around her work so well. She's anxious; she lashes out; but she actually does make efforts to fit back into her family, despite exile. Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is the sister who fears (rightfully) that Kym is going to attempt to steal her wedding spotlight. But Rachel, too, is imperfect - pointing out every neurotic flaw in her sister, contributing to her sister's behavior. The wonderul Bill Irwin is the father that attempts to keep everyone happy. Debra Winger is the estranged mother, reuniting only long enough to open old wounds.
This sounds like the stuff of annoying self-indulgence (some actually think so), but Demme deftly travels the landscape created by these characters, allowing the story to play itself out in what is unsaid. By the end, you feel as if you've attended a wedding - and a movie just happened to take place around it. I love the risk that Demme takes in letting the story play out around the edges of the screen, instead of dead center. The resulting film is the reinvigeration of a great director and the well-deserved upward trajectory of the career of an actress already worthy of great respect. Rachel is due out on DVD March 17, 2009. RSVP now.
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