It would be very easy to review this movie on its merits alone. However, this movie is not an easy one to sit through, so it deserves a little more than some cursory praise. Tales about a human and their dog are as old as the human/dog relationship itself. The stories tend to spark the strongest reactions from moviegoers than any other tearjerker. Dogs seem to be able to touch even the toughest people, and it is our complicated and compelling bond that makes films about that connection so memorable.

“Wendy and Lucy” is the tale of girl that is down on her luck. We are never sure why she is leaving her family and life behind her. Truth is, you don’t need to know. I prefer a film that leaves the back-story to the imagination. Sometimes the mystery of the character can really make a movie for me because it is the viewer that ultimately defines who they are based on their actions. I like that every viewer has their own idea of who the person is and not who they are told the character is supposed to be. So for me, not knowing Wendy’s personal history was a beautiful thing.

Wendy is passing through a small town in Oregon on her way up to Alaska looking for work. She carefully counts the money she has left, and lives so bare bones that you would think she had half the world to cross rather than just the Northwest. Lucy is her only companion on this journey. Like all dogs, Lucy is happy just to be with her human. Lucy does not have to worry about the money or the miles. Lucy just has to worry about where her stick is and whether it is time to eat yet. It is one of those needs that is the catalyst for Lucy’s separation from Wendy. The remainder of the story is Wendy’s slow meltdown as she looks for her dog, her only connection to what is good in the world. The world is very harsh, but Lucy made the realities of every day living a bearable place full of hope. With Lucy gone, Wendy can only face those realities alone with no support system.

My dachshund was the best friend I have ever had. No matter what was going wrong or what was going right in my life, he was always there. Although my dog did not understand the world around him in the clear way a human might, my dog did understand that sometimes I needed him to keep the world from me. In his own way at least.

I lost my dog last year. After 16 years together, it was a hard but inevitable moment in my life and his. As I watched this movie I thought about the time he had accidentally run away from home in pursuit of some lizards. The sheer panic I felt when I realized he was gone is as fresh today as it was then. Watching “Wendy and Lucy” I could feel what Wendy likely felt. Granted I was not also suffering the challenges that Wendy had to endure, but the sense of helplessness came flooding back to me in that little theatre. In part that was due to the connection I still feel to my dog, but mostly it was because this movie was delicately crafted.

“Wendy and Lucy” is a quiet, small piece of art. It has a frankness to it that is refreshing after the long glut of summer flicks. Michelle Williams gives a beautifully subtle and quiet performance. Williams' ability to show inner panic and struggle with just a few small shifts on her face shows that she continues to mature with each role she takes on. While this film is not the best one I have seen this year, it certainly has a lot more raw emotional investment than I have seen in anything in a long while.