Dear Wendy
![Dear Wendy [2005]](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000BH2U2S.02.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)
A film about a group of young people obsessed with guns didn’t sound like the kind of film I’d enjoy at all, but something about the trailer and description (not to mention a writing credit for Lars Von Trier) suggested that it wouldn’t be a run of the mill gun-glorifying story. It’s actually quite a subtle film, full of contradictions.
Dick Dandelion (Jamie Bell doing a very passable American accent) is a quiet young man growing up in a mining town, who is widely viewed as a loser because he refuses to work in the mine. He has more or less resigned himself to a loser’s life as a lowly store clerk when Stevie (another clerk at the store) tells him that the gun he thought was a toy is a genuine weapon. Wendy (as he names the gun) becomes a talisman and a confidence giver—-a ‘moral support’, as he puts it. Dick and Stevie become friends and bring together the town’s other ‘losers’ to join their paradoxical society. ‘The Dandies’ are gun-toting pacifists, obsessed to a creepy degree with guns, the history of warfare, and gun crime forensic reports. They carry guns to give them confidence, to help them grow, but pledge never to ‘brandish’ them in public, and never to use them for violence against anyone.
It works, for a while. They hold themselves more upright, walk more confidently, and look others in the eyes as equals. Huey, who wears leg braces, even starts to attract girls. But then Sebastian—-a young man who has actually killed someone with a gun—-arrives, and Dick inducts him into The Dandies to try to instil a sense of responsibility into him. You sense that things will go wrong, and they do, but the precipitating event is so surprising that you’ll probably yell “What?” out loud when it happens.
Guns are the apparent subject of the film, but really it seems to be about confidence, courage, power and fear.
1
It's a suppper film!!! I've seen it recently in the Dubai hotel, I stayed in, while was visiting the Emirates!!! I was wathciing it with my husband and we were deeply impressed by the plot and the actor's play!!! Those who haven't seen it yet, I sincerely recommend to !!!!
by funnytravel @ 02/10/2006 6:11 am • Permalink •
2
I want to see this film) the story is rather good
by Jenny @ 04/10/2006 5:10 am • Permalink •
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