by The Film Blogger

Created on: September 11, 2009

The late Adrienne Shelly's Waitress exudes charm from its first frame until its last, sniff-inducing one the endearing Southern accents, the incessant mention of pie, and the wild and wacky characters all work in a wondrous, and surprisingly mature concoction.

The film revolves around the turmoil of Southern waitress Jenna (Keri Russell), who is trapped in an unhappy marriage to a controlling, abusive husband (Jeremy Sisto), and to make matters is worse, is pregnant by him, with a child that she does not want.

Aside from Russell, who is a commanding actress in her own right, it can be said that Waitress is a masterclass of underappreciated television talent, ranging from Curb Your Enthusiasm's Cheryl Hines (Jenna's colleague and friend), to Six Feet Under's Jeremy Sisto (Jenna's maniacal jackass of a husband), to Firefly's Nathan Fillion (Jenna's doctor and on-again-off-again love interest). Also, one cannot help but feel a hint of sadness upon meeting Adrienne Shelly's own character in the film a ditzy, yet unarguably sweet colleague and friend of Jenna's, and the fact that Shelly, the person, was murdered before the film went on to enjoy considerable acclaim, is heartbreaking.

From the moment these key players are introduced, the film is filled with promise. Can we see plot strands sewn early? Sure, but Waitress is not a film concerned with surprises and twists, but simply with telling a wholesome, fun, and touching story of family, love, and chasing your dreams.

I am generally weary of quirkiness in films, yet Waitress manifests its quirks through its host of wonderful, uniformly oddball characters, from the hostile, demanding owner of the pie shop in which Jenna works, to a psychotic, yet affluent stalker, to Jenna's wildly acerbic, deadpan manager. The characters in of themselves are largely not belly-laugh material, yet they are certainly amusing in their own way, and provide the film with a greater sense of spirit and charm.

Even Fillion's Dr. Pomatter is something of a bumbling Hugh Grant-esque type, and Shelly does well to raise the obvious romantic chemistry between his character and Jenna early on in the picture, rather than carefully tip-toeing around it. In this respect, considering that Dr. Pomatter is himself married, a question of morality runs as an undercurrent to the narrative. As such, whilst the film is incredibly sweet, it does, to its credit, have a number of entirely serious moments, although they never seem to inundate the narrative.

Waitress

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>