quietearth [Film Festival 11.17.08] movie review drama



Year: 2008
Release date: Dec. 10th (limited)
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writer: Kelly Reichardt & Jonathan Raymond
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 6 out of 10

I was looking forward to this film more then anything else at the Denver Film Fest, I mean, have you seen the trailer and read the synopsis? It looked exactly like that indy oddness I so love. But I've got more bad news... it was kind of boring. Larry Fessenden's Glass Eye Pix was one of the producers behind this and even a brief cameo by Larry himself didn't up the ante, although I will say, from it's timid start it got much better as it went along. Maybe if they had started a little further back (or forward) in the story, it might of worked better. For the sake of brevity, I can tell you I think this was a treatise on loneliness with some heavy political overtones, although at first it doesn't look like it.


Wendy is our main character and Lucy is her dog, a beautiful golden retriever mix which is her sole companion. They're heading up to Alaska because they hear theirs work, and with very little cash she gets stuck in the middle of nowhere Oregon, right in front of a Walgreen's. I'm betting that Walgreen's didn't pay for this ad placement and this is probably our first real political statement, but I really don't want to go into depth on that. As she'd parked and slept the night in their lot, the security guard helps push her now broke down car into the street. This guard, a stranger, provides help as the story goes on and could be seen as part of her distance with humanity.

After getting caught stealing in the supermarket, Wendy loses Lucy who was tied up out front as she's in the clink for a while. Completely distraught now she looks all over town, asking around and eventually hitting the pound with no luck. The story has now developed into something desperate, a broken car, a lost dog, and a family who acknowledges her with little more then a "hello". But she's a trooper, and no matter what happens, she keeps moving forward, even when she has to sleep out in the forest on cardboard boxes.

As I said before, as the film went on it got better and oddly enough this coincided with things worsening for Wendy. Overall it was very short, clocking in at an abrupt 80 minutes, and in the end I think it was half decent. Maybe you'll like it a little more then I did. Maybe it wasn't meant to be watched in a theater packed with people, but due to it's nature, at home alone so you can feel the full empathy and loneliness of the character.

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Cyberhal (13 years ago) Reply

that's a shame, i was looking forward to this one too

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