Wendy and Lucy (2008)
79%RT Audience Score: 67%
Awards & Nominations: 9 wins & 16 nominations
Michelle Williams gives a heartbreaking performance in Wendy and Lucy, a timely portrait of loneliness and struggle
Wendy and Lucy is a movie that will make you feel all the feels. From heartbreak to hope, this film captures the struggles of a real person in a real situation. Michelle Williams’ performance is unadorned and vulnerable, making you root for her every step of the way. It’s a modern-day tragedy that will leave you feeling haunted and hopeful all at once. Plus, who doesn’t love a good road trip movie?
Production Company(ies)
Paramount Pictures, The Coppola Company, American Zoetrope
Distributor
Oscilloscope Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Portland, Oregon, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for language
Year of Release
2009
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 20m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 10, 2008 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): May 5, 2009
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Will Oldham, John Robinson, Wally Dalton, Larry Fessenden, directed by Kelly Reichardt, written by Jonathan Raymond, genre Drama, box office performance $856.9K, reviewed by Stanley Kauffmann, Ryan Gilbey, J R Jones, Alison Willmore, Sam Adams, Mark Jenkins, Brian Eggert, Jason Best, Carey-Ann Pawsey, Mattie Lucas, Jonathan Raban, Sean Axmaker, MPAA rating R, produced by Oscilloscope Pictures, poverty, homelessness, road trip, Alaska, dog, shoplifting, arrest, missing pet, survival, loneliness, struggle, heartbreaking performance, timely portrait
Worldwide gross: $1,192,995
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $1,648,851
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,465
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 179,809
US/Canada gross: $865,695
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $1,196,486
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,148
US/Canada opening weekend: $18,218
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $25,179
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,432
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $200,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $276,422
Production budget ranking: 2,129
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $148,853
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $1,223,576
ROI to date (est.): 288%
ROI ranking: 473
Will Patton – Mechanic
Will Oldham – Icky
John Robinson – Andy
Wally Dalton – Security Guard
Larry Fessenden – Man in Park
Director(s)
Kelly Reichardt
Writer(s)
Jonathan Raymond, Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
Producer(s)
NA
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
9 wins & 16 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (186) | Top Critics (58) | Fresh (159) | Rotten (27)
In happy sum, Reichardt is one more of the current American directors, most of them still young, who are endowing our film world with pleasure and hope.
March 27, 2015
Stanley Kauffmann
The New Republic
TOP CRITIC
I expect there will be more stories like Wendy and Lucy’s in the coming months and years. The wonder will be if they articulate their compassion and distress with such unforced eloquence.
March 27, 2015
Ryan Gilbey
New Statesman
TOP CRITIC
The climax is a heartbreaker, and in its haunting finale the movie recalls no less than Mervyn LeRoy’s Depression-era classic I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.
March 27, 2015
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
Michelle Williams is in every scene of Wendy and Lucy, and ably carries that burden — with her dark pixie haircut and cut-offs, she looks frighteningly vulnerable, an indie urchin stuck in circumstances both dire and mundane.
March 27, 2015
Alison Willmore
IFC.com
TOP CRITIC
Evanescent and intangible, it dissolves into the air, leaving something tragic and mysterious behind.
July 7, 2010
Sam Adams
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
Wendy and Lucy is too laconic to be mistaken for a social drama, but it’s set in a land whose harshness seems to a require a stronger critique than Reichardt’s vignettes.
July 7, 2010
Mark Jenkins
NPR
TOP CRITIC
Delivers a modern-day version of Vittorio De Sica’s Umberto D. (1952),
February 21, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
Watching Wendy lose her precarious grip on everything she holds dear is quietly heartbreaking – and a bracing reminder in these straitened times of how easy it is for someone like her to be tipped over the edge when there isn’t a safety net around.
November 21, 2020
Jason Best
Movie Talk
It is about a real person facing real situation. Instead of looking at something like the U.S. financial collapse or a stock market crash, we get a more intimate story.
March 2, 2020 | Rating: 3/5
Carey-Ann Pawsey
Orca Sound
A tragic tone poem for a modern day America, struggling to find a sense of hope in an increasingly hopeless world.
July 7, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/4
Mattie Lucas
From the Front Row
[A] spare and haunting film.
August 29, 2018
Jonathan Raban
The New York Review of Books
Wendy and Lucy (2008) isn’t the romantic road movie of Alexander Supertramp in Into the Wild. This is survival, revealed in all the mundane details of a documentary portrait and the simple power of Michelle Williams’ unadorned performance…
March 2, 2018
Sean Axmaker
Stream on Demand…
Plot
A woman’s life is derailed en route to a potentially lucrative summer job. When her car breaks down, and her dog is taken to the pound, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she is led through a series of increasingly dire economic decisions.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no goofy or funny or odd comment about the film Wendy and Lucy on Fresh Kernels.
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