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Waitress (2007) Fox Searchlight Pictures 1 hr. 44 mins. Starring: Keri Russell, Jeremy Sisto, Adrienne Shelly, Nathan Fillion, Andy Griffith, Cheryl Hines Directed by: Adrienne Shelly This film is rated: PG-13 Waitress Rating:  
E-MAIL FRANK OCHIENG It’s a crying shame that late filmmaker/actress Adrienne Shelly’s November 2006 murder has put a sorrowful cloud over her creative memorable touches in the engagingly quirky and quaint melodrama Waitress. Around the time of Shelly’s tragic passing where she was killed in her Manhattan home, the writer/director/co-star had completed Waitress as her third and unfortunately final feature-length film. The lingering results are gleefully cheeky, poignant and as appetizing as a warm blueberry pie simmering on a wooden windowsill in the August sun. Shelly, an indie actress mainly in the 90’s independent cinema scene, had shown such bursting potential as an intuitive moviemaker and performer. Sadly, her life was cut short due to the senseless violence and crime-ridden malaise that persists in our desperate urban societies. Thankfully, Shelly has left the puckish Waitress as a constant reminder of her brilliance as an artist with a sense of effortless style and a humble and homegrown imagination to boot. Pregnant piemaker Jenna (Kerri Russell) has more baking in the oven than her tasty, crusty desserts. She works as a small-town waitress in a faceless wooded community that hardly compensates her for her hard work at Joe’s Pie Diner. More important, Jenna is stuck in a colorless marriage to an abusive, demanding and ignorant spouse named Earl (Jeremy Sisto). The slap in the face is caused by the insufferable Earl getting Jenna knocked up that puts more of a strain on her relationship with a misguided man that she wants to abandon for better pastures. Nevertheless, Jenna is determined to keep her baby regardless of what Earl or anyone thinks. There are a few distractions that Jenna looks forward to when ducking and dodging her marital woes with proven knucklehead Earl. She finds comfort and solidarity with her waitress co-workers and buddies in nerdy Dawn (Shelly) and tough-talking tart Becky (Cheryl Hines from cable TV’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”). Also, Jenna has her mind focused on entering the $25,000 grand prize pie-cooking contest that could financially rescue her from the stagnant likes of Earl’s pathetic existence. Overall, Jenna is very likeable and respected by her customers and fellow food servers. She even manages to win the heart of her cantankerous elderly boss Joe (played wonderfully by veteran television icon Andy Griffith) who’s despised by everyone else that comes in contact with him. One particular admirer of Jenna’s is handsome gynecologist Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion, “Serenity”), a newly arrival to the town. Mutually, Pomatter and Jenna carry on an affair despite the waitress’s screwed up union with the despicable Earl. As good-natured and caring that Pomatter is towards Jenna and her precarious circumstances, she cannot overlook the fact that her darling and dashing doctor is married as well—surprise, surprise! Thus, Jenna’s misfortune with unsuspecting men continues to bog down her psyche. Still, the future for her and her child can only get better and rise above the lackluster existence that she trudges through presently. There’s nothing really energetic or eye-popping about Waitress other than the same old familiar conflict about feminine empowerment and gaining independence from a ho hum livelihood. Hey, that’s not necessarily a bad thing at all. Still, Shelly incorporates a nifty lyrical landscape of pies, parenting, promises unfulfilled—all to emphasize the disappointments and damages that undermine the innocence of a small-time utopia in Nowhere, USA. The performances are penetrating, especially coming from former TV “Felicity” actress Russell that finds the right vulnerable spark to embody the conflicted Jenna. Shelly is sympathetic as the flaky Dawn who finally captures her Mr. Right given her goofy-minded wallflower personality. In fact, Shelly the filmmaker is very generous in that she gives colorful and kooky luster to her trio of flawed waitresses—women that are bounded by the simplicity of their thankless jobs and wounded men. Supporting turns by Sisto and Fillion as deceptive guys wearing both bad and good badges of male disenchantment register with noted aplomb. Griffith is soundly potent and comically uncouth as the grouchy Joe that maintains a soft center underneath his gruff exterior that only Jenna can appreciate with unseen patience. The balancing of comedy and drama that persists in Waitress is quite infectious and this is a true acknowledgement to the dearly departed Shelly’s vision for personalized warmth and wonderment of her crafty characterizations. Although Shelly’s physical presence was ruthlessly silenced to a real life twist of disturbing fate as she will be definitely missed in the cinema field, Waitress will be a memorialized nod of a little gem of a film that delivered a slice of pie to our hungry, entertaining expectations. Click here to comment on this review or post your own thoughts. Frank Ochieng © TheWorldJournal.com |
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