Wendy and Lucy
Oscilloscope Pictures | Release Date: December 10, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Improbably, it's one of the most affecting films of the year, which once again demonstrates that all you need to make a good movie is talent. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Wendy and Lucy is modest, minimalist. But it nonetheless reverberates like a sonic boom. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It's a tender, tough, uncompromising film, photographed with a disarming directness and seeming simplicity that looks almost naked next to the dramatic constructions of most films. It just makes her precariousness all the more real. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
This is where the movie excels. In the classic neo-realist tradition, it's scant in plot yet rich in mood and character, offering us a revealing hint here, a poignant glimpse there, with each revelation filtered through Michelle Williams's superbly muted performance, all the more moving for being so restrained. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Wendy and Lucy is like "Lassie Come Home" directed by Antonioni. What's piercing about it, and also disturbing, is that Reichardt views the renunciation of society with something close to righteous purity -- as a lefty romantic dream. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Having the dog around raises the emotional stakes tenfold, and develops a kinship with Vittorio De Sica's Italian neo-realist classic "Umberto D.," which also revealed societal ills through a poignant dog-owner relationship Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The film is exquisitely realized, with a tremendous, naturalistic performance by Michelle Williams at its heart and a pervasive, assuring sense that Reichardt and Raymond have distilled everything nonessential from their story and imparted exactly the impact they wished. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
What will happen to her? The strength of this short, simple, perfect story of a young woman and her dog is that this does not seem, by the end, to be an idle or trivial question. What happens to Wendy -- and to Lucy -- matters a lot, which is to say that Wendy and Lucy, for all its modesty, matters a lot too. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Trembling throughout on the verge of a tearful breakdown, but far too dignified to allow her character to choke up, Williams delivers a sensationally nuanced performance that, were it not so resolutely undramatic, would constitute an aria of stoical misery. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesSam Adams
Williams' performance is remarkable not only for its depth but for its stillness. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Simple story, beautifully told. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
An evocative film with a believable and subtly enthralling lead performance that gets deeply under your skin. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Wendy Carroll is a character we rarely see in movies anymore, a woman left alone with her thoughts. That a moviegoer would care what she's thinking testifies to the power in Williams's brand of solitude. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Another illustration of how absorbing a film can be when the plot doesn't stand between us and a character. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Within the confines of this minimalist picture, there are sequences so vital, timely and of-the-moment, so powerful and well-observed and precise, the effect can be emotionally overwhelming. Read full review
80
VarietyScott Foundas
"Old Joy" helmer Kelly Reichardt plays to her strengths in Wendy and Lucy, a modest yet deeply felt road movie about an idealistic young drifter, her faithful canine and the wide-open spaces of the Pacific Northwest. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Reichardt is a tremendously conscientious filmmaker, and not out to torture the audience. Yes, this is a fraught and agonizing story, but the way it ends, although heartbreaking, is absolutely right. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
In a minimalist film of muted emotions, Michelle Williams gives as lovely a performance as a moviegoer could ask for. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Masterful low-budget drama. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Because Wendy and Lucy is so lean on plot and dialogue, there are long spaces to contemplate Wendy and her situation, and the logistics are mind-boggling. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The transformation undergone by Michelle Williams to play this role is nothing short of astounding. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Reichardt doesn't so much tell a story as paint a finely detailed portrait of human suffering in this miniature marvel. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineJosh Ralske
Reichardt is such a canny filmmaker that one could almost believe that she intentionally leaves Wendy underwritten and a bit of a cipher, because Wendy is far more effective as a bold-faced symbol of the downtrodden than as a fully realized human character. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
If a Warner Bros. social-protest film from the early 1930s somehow got into bed with an American indie from the 1970s, how would the love-child turn out? Like this. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A film that might have seemed faintly academic six months ago becomes an anxious expression of its historical moment. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Too often when actors portray complicated or enigmatic characters, they seem to be flirting with the audience, playing hard to get. Not Williams. Read full review
70
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
Unless you're an antsy movie-goer or have a cold heart, by the end of Wendy and Lucy, you'll be engrossed, hoping for the best possible outcome. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
She's infuriating, but the movie, for all its morose impassivity, is beautiful and haunting. Read full review
60
Washington PostJohn Anderson
For all its virtues, Wendy and Lucy seems like the most overrated of art movies. Yes, it's obscure and distancing and makes you pay attention. Williams's performance is nuanced, moving and well worth any awards she gets. But Wendy is also anonymous. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna Smith
Slow, ponderous, meticulously rendered realism that will appeal to specific audiences of slow, ponderous, meticulously rendered realism, with a heart. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStaff (Not credited)
Michelle Williams does her best but she cannot prevent Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy, a weak tale about being broke and on the road in rural America, from dwindling into boredom. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Like a worst-case-scenario, indie-movie cliché, Wendy and Lucy throws every bone it can at the screen. Read full review
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