Waitress (2007) Synopsis:
Tale of a poor Southern woman trapped in a bad marriage who finds true love when a new gynaecologist comes to town.
Waitress (2007) Movie Review:
For a review to go anywhere near "Waitress" it is mandatory to address one particularly depressing background detail. The film's director, writer and actress Adrienne Shelly was murdered in her New York dwelling before her film was released. That kind of puts a damper on the whole romantic comedy angle but, honestly, no more of a damper than the film imposes on itself. Due to the guilt factor, however, expect Shelly’s last film to be critic proof. Still, tragedy or not, someone's got to stand up to this film’s reign of schmaltz and… … eck, well, I might as well give it a shot but I can tell you right now that I’m not going to feel good about it.
As a writer, Shelly has, or, had (this is so depressing), a penchant for cute sounding dialogue that overflows with a catchy verve but signifies absolutely nothing. "Waitress" is a mawkish southern fable about an unhappily married small town pie chef, Jenna, who is fearful that she is pregnant. When Jenna cringes at the mere thought of being knocked up by her loathsome husband (Jeremy Sisto), the emphatic Doctor played by Nathan Fillion detects her unease and says “Uncongradlations, you’re definitely having a baby.” She rolls her eyes, all expressive like, and says “Unthankyou.” The film is positively coated with these sing-songy verbal rhythms and I image Shelly cultivated this irritating, "Girlmore Girls"-speak cadence from Hal Hartley, king of contrived indie banter and false characters. I would go on about the writing if it weren’t for the fact that Shelly’s directing is even more busted than the script; the film’s overly vibrant but hollow scenes are reserved for expository, situational comedy purposes or glossy pie baking montages. In this respect "Waitress" isn’t a film so much as it is a presentation of comfort food vis-à-vis comforting femmes.
An artless version of "Me and You and Everyone We Know", "Waitress" stars Felicity, er, I mean Kerry Russell as the “pie genus,” a woman whose uncanny superpower is that she can whip up a pie to suit any situation or mood. For instance, one day she makes an “I hate my husband pie” (… crickets). Day after ordinary day the affable-enough Jenna dazzles small town patrons (including Andy Griffith) wither her culinary creativity. The point being that this food muse brings untold pleasure to others while never receiving any herself. So when the chef finds her own oven full of baby batter (ew), this sparks the realization that she hates her life (which is funny because I did too, and way before she figured it out) and is in bad need of some “kick in the pants pie.” That’s not a joke, she actually makes that pie and it consists of pickles and stuff. The remainder of the film deals with Jenna as she copes with an unwanted baby on the inside and two adult babies (one, the bad boy father of her child and the other a clumsy big city savior with a sense of humor), vying for her love on the outside. Her attraction with the new Doc in town is of course a romantic movie contrivance but it does provide the film with some credibility. Because this character is played by Fillion ("Firefly," "Serenity," "Slither"), my Joss Whedon fanboy membership requires me to say something positive so here I go: Fillion plays likable character that breaths life into a stale story. I found the Doctor’s nervous energy and chemistry with Russell to be the only organic thing in this otherwise preservative filled film. But even here "Waitress" falters by distracting us with the extraneous plot detail that the Doctor also has a spouse, and one that he’s quite happy with.
Much like the film’s own unhappily married Jenna, "Waitress" becomes a prisoner of plot and character. While the Doctor/ patient flirtation has a fair amount of charm going for it, the rest of the film feels flat as it lapses all too easily into sitcom mode and, even worse, Lifetime Original Movie territory. First off, Jenna’s chatty diner friends played by Cheryl Hines and the film’s writer/director Shelly live in perpetual stock character mode where best friends exit to be The Best Friend; i.e. characters who come in at the right moment, comfort the protagonist in the ladies room, crack a few sex jokes, and punctuate scenes with big ol’ group hugs. This is ironic considering the fact that the actual sitcom Hines stars in, "Curb Your Enthusiasm", has more energy and innovation than anything to be seen here.
Even more distracting than her annoying gal-pals is the presence of Earl, Jenna’s husband played by "Six Feet Under’s" Sisto. Earl… even his name is wrought with distain. This character is not just the wrong guy for Jenna, but apparently the wrong guy for the film. As he yells, throws dishes, honks his car horn incessantly, takes his wife’s hard earned tips and cries like an insecure baby, Earl rings false to a point where he drags this harmless (if dopy) romantic comedy into the depths of a glum drama whenever he’s on screen. Earl is a man who abuses his pregnant wife on a regular basis for the only reason that the film doesn’t know what else to do with him (he can’t be nice after all). When Jenna tries to enter a pie baking contest behind Earl’s back, he slugs her. Earl goes as far as to verbally assault his wife as she’s GIVING BIRTH! In what world did this comic book villain come from and what the hell is he doing in this movie? Oh, but, you see Jenna stays with the monster because he drops lines like “I don’t know what I would do you ever left me” with all the finesse of Travis Bickle.
When not engaging in trite sentiments and painful dialogue, "Waitress", I guess, is innocuous enough. I don’t dislike this film as much as I’m just not interested in anything it has to say, which, as it turns out, isn’t much. Jenna may be a one-of-a-kind vanilla-flavored wunderkind but beyond this character trait, we’ve seen her kind in a number of different, or, rather, similar films. Take "Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore", add some of the yearning of "The Good Girl", a pinch of deep Southern "Steel Magnolias" bad accents and, finally, a few "Home Fries" for the road home and, voilà, you have an instant-indie formula sure to please anyone into this kind of movie. And by looking at the poster that consists of pastel plaid tabletops, inviting pies of the non-American Pie variety and ear-to-ear smiles, you’ll know instantly if this is your kind of film—except, if it is, don’t say I didn’t warn you about the “I don’t want Earl to kill me pie” subplot. So consider this syrupy yarn the filmic equivalent to an empty calorie dessert that will go down easily for some but will probably make the rest of us sick from all the artificial sweetening.
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Waitress (2007) review written by: Greg Douglass
7th September, 2008 
28th August 2008: George Clooney Up In The Air! 
