Waitress (2007)

Yes, we have two movies of the same name released in the same year. This one is not really a comedy, although it is advertised as such and does indeed have its comic moments. It's a sad picture really, its poignancy rendered even more chillingly dramatic by the murder of writer/director/player Adrienne Shelly by an intruder in her New York office/apartment halfway through 2006. Presumably, the movie was edited without her guidelines and it simply runs too long. I'm sure that had she lived, Adrienne would have trimmed the first half of the movie which tends to be both repetitious and inconsequential and even – let's fact it! – boring! With the entrance of the new doctor, however, the last half of the movie becomes very poignant and I'm not really giving anything away by saying that it comes to a rather downbeat conclusion that is not unexpected but still rather sad. Admittedly, a New York reviewer had the opposite response – "Leaves you feeling good!" he wrote. Admittedly, performances are good all around, and as the lead character, Keri Russell is nothing short of outstanding! The superb 20th Century Fox DVD has some wonderful extras.

Director/writer/actress Adrienne's jinxed misfortune (she was killed in a burglary at home) before releasing her second film in 2006 took on a critically unanticipated hype for this indie drama-comedy, starring a haplessly chirpy Keri Russell as the waitress and pie-baker, engrossed over 19 million dollars on the domestic box-office (versus its $2,000,000 budget). I was prejudiced to expect a comedic girl-gone-independent rousing story thanks to the bright-colored poster, multi-montages of garish pies, the risible characters (Hines and Shelly, two co-worker at the pie diner). But soon it was exposed that the film takes on a rather weighty route to probe a matter-of-fact escapism of Keri's character, Jenna's birth (with a new baby on her way) and rebirth (her own life) plan, opening her own pie diner and leaving his fiendish- tempered husband. Apart from all the emotional empathy towards Adrienne, the film calls upon a solid soap-opera plot wisdom to embroider Jenna a down-to-earth plight till an energy- accumulated outburst strikes back to take reprisal for all the miseries she has and also be feasible to a blithe ending. The film certainly possesses its own appeal to a more female-inclined demography, partial because of its not-so-subtle feminism by manufacturing a loathsomely sadistic husband, an adorable but weak-willed married gynecologist as the tryst fantasy, also a wealthy but eccentric old geezer who Jenna befriends with (no spoilers alert, also to render some explicable getaway for the revitalization of her new-born life and baby). Keri Russell acts in her comfort zone and by far it is her best work to widen her realm as a leading character, it's a shame that her recent films are not so-well-received, she is in my top 10 list of BEST ACTRESS in 2007, also R.I.P. Adrienne, may you have peace in heaven!

This movie is like a beautiful painting which unfolds its colors gradually. You are not eager to watch where its going but just enjoy it and flow with it. After a point you feel that these characters are so real and as if things are actually happening to them. Of course movie does have its slow moments and very sad moments when you sympathize with the protagonist and wait for something good to happen, but there are so many funny and mad incidents that even anti-drama audience will love it.I am sure all women will definitely love it. Best to be watched on a afternoon, alone.

The late Adrienne Shelly wrote, directed, and co-stars in this modest comedy wherein a small town pie-maker (who works as a waitress at the diner she makes desserts for!) considers leaving her abusive husband for her handsome--but already-married--obstetrician. To complicate matters, she finds she's pregnant for the first time (after the husband got her drunk one night), though this only seems to sweeten the pot for the doctor, who wants to run off with her anyhow. Keri Russell is very fetching and grounded in the leading role, but her character (who has been making delicious treats her entire life) comes off as an underachiever, with no money and no hope in turning her baking talents into a lucrative profession. Jeremy Sisto's angry, selfish husband fares no better; wouldn't he want his wife bringing home more money...or is he happy struggling along from paycheck to paycheck? The condition that he's so jealous he won't allow her to try for bigger prospects is a lazy, illogical out, and the scenes between husband and wife are both unpleasant and unconvincing. Shelly has created some engaging, folksy supporting roles (such as Andy Griffith's salty proprietor), but because the movie has only one foot in reality, the situations these people are involved in do not come to much. The humor is quirky-cute though not terribly funny, while the Southern milieu, the life in the diner, and the side-threads of romance each fail to come off. ** from ****