This is one of those movies that tells an extremely simple story in what appears to be a guileless, completely transparent manner. The Iranian film The White Balloon is the model for this style of film-making. Here's the low down: Wendy is on her way to Ketchican, Alaska to get a job (based largely on hearsay). Her ancient car breaks down in an unnamed town in Oregon and she loses her dog while she is engaged in some legal business that results from her arrest for shop lifting in a grocery. She meets a nice security guard at a Walgreens and a not too nice mechanic. A scary guy breathes over her while she sleeps and talks some crazy talk. Mostly we watch her waiting around or traipsing out to the dog pound; not a lot happens. Wendy is not especially interesting, with no very outstanding character traits except perhaps determination and a certain fastidiousness. (She brushes her teeth each morning in a Shell station restroom; we get to watch!) We are provided with no information about her motives for leaving her home in Muncie, Indiana. Why would anyone want to leave Muncie? This film got good reviews, but I'm pretty hard pressedto see its virtues. If you want to pursue this "back to basics" style of filmmaking, you'd better have a good story or fascinating characters or an exotic locale. This film hasn't got any of those.
