Waitress

Greetings again from the darkness. Very personal and intimate story from the very talented Adrienne Shelly. Ms. Shelly was tragically murdered before the film was released, but what a legacy and gift she left for her husband, daughter and film lovers.

Keri Russell ("Felicity") stars as Jenna, a fabulous pie maker who is a lost soul married to the world's worst husband - played brilliantly by Jeremy Sisto. She works at a diner with her two friends played wonderfully by the bubbly Cheryl Hines and the film's writer and director, Adrienne Shelly. The relationship between these three is very realistic, touching and entertaining. They love and cherish each other.

Outstanding support from Eddie Jemison ("Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen"), Nathan Fillian ("Serenity") and the great Andy Griffith, who has some great lines and definitely should work more often!! Jemison's spontaneous poetry capture the heart of Ms. Shelly's character and Fillian's Dr. Pomatter shows Russell what it is like to be adored, rather than abused.

This is not slick Hollywood film-making. It is quirky ... just like real life. These are characters, who for the most part, make the best of their situations. Every now and then, if we are lucky, we capture a moment of pure bliss ... whether it is in the selfless hug from another, or the miracle of childbirth. The script analyzes loneliness and bad relationships with a twist of humor and much insight.

While it is heart-breaking that Ms. Shelly did not live to see the final product, we see her heart and soul on screen. And don't miss her real daughter (Sophie Ostrey) as Ms. Russell's 3 year old LuLu. This is a wonderful little film with some terrific moments and a nice message to enjoy your life.

Waitress is a film that is almost impossible not to love. It is such an obvious labor of love for all involved and brings out some of the best work of many of those involved. And unlike many "labor of love" films, this one is actually both highly entertaining and easily accessible. From start to finish, it is a heart moving and amusing film with many quirks and magnificent originality. While it is a romantic comedy, it is not a "Hollywood" romantic comedy in that the film rarely -- if ever -- goes where you expect it to go.

The story follows a young waitress (played by Keri Russell) who is married to a full-time loser (Jeremy Sisto) with a mean spirit. She finds out she is pregnant which ultimately puts her on a collision course with the new doctor in town (Nathan Fillion) whom she falls into a passionate love affair with. The film follows this waitress as she tries to sort out her own problematic relationship with her husband, understand what her heart is telling her about her affair, all the while dealing with her everyday life with her fellow waitress friends (Adrienne Shelly and Cheryl Hines) and a grumpy old customer (Andy Griffith) who happens to own the restaurant where she works.

Every character in this film is memorable for one reason or another, including several minor character such as the short-order cook of the restaurant, and even a mother and her young, obnoxious son who frequent the restaurant and strike fear into the pregnant protagonist. Andy Griffith in particular grabs the audience's attention and makes his role a true standout.

The only major criticism that can be brought against the film is some of the camera work. At times the focus is unclear with the camera seemingly unsure which actors it should be staying on and at times simply not being in focus at all. However, it is such a minor issue and would go unnoticed to most audiences that it certainly doesn't bring the quality of the film down in any way.

Adrienne Shelly who acted in, wrote and directed the film (as well as co-set designed, co- costume designed and even provided one of the songs for the film) has left one perfect little film here. It is such a tragedy that she did not live to see this film's release as it certainly would have given her the success she so richly deserved. This film can easily be recommended to anybody who has a heart.

Waitress is a great, funny movie starring Keri Russell as a small-town waitress who discovers that she's pregnant just as she's planning to leave her jealous, controlling husband. The typical Hollywood approach for a movie like this would be to film it in ultra-serious "movie of the week" mode, but writer/director/actor Adrienne Shelly chose to tell her story in an extremely stylized, almost fairy-tale style. The stylized dialogue, super-sharp photography and primary-color palette even reminded me of the movies of Joel & Ethan Coen at times, but in the end, this movie packs an emotional punch that the Coen brothers have rarely achieved. It also features a brilliant (and brilliantly human) performance by Andy Griffith as the horny old geezer who owns the diner where Russell works.

This movie has a good chance at achieving a Little Miss Sunshine-style breakout this year. It's funny, quirky and honestly touching. Waitress stands as a fine legacy for Adrienne Shelly, but if things had been different, it could have been the movie that launched her into the mainstream instead of her swan song.

Waitress could have turned into a middling mess, or something with characters that are hard to like (or, I should really note, sociopathic) if done in a more hard-lined Hollywood 'rom-com' assembly-line output (in 2007 those were still done). But Adrienne Shelley was more, for lack of a less precise word-choice, sweet-hearted about her characters. Even the villain of the story, and he is a villain who stands firmly in the way of our hero Keri Russell, her character's husband played by Jeremy Sisto, takes a break (if only in the tiniest moments) to not be a scumbag and show how he too can be vulnerable and afraid.

He surely shows his humanity the least - Sisto is scarily adept at making his Earl into a presence that's felt off camera too, if not more so - but Shelley had with Waitress a real chance to make a commercial picture and she took it. Prior to this she directed a couple of low budget independent films, and with this may have seemed to go 'mainstream'. The casting choices though are what count here especially; Russell carries so much screen presence that it's a wonder the lens doesn't make out with her before Nathan Fillion's Doctor does. And in small parts she gets things right too with Cheryl Hines as another waitress at the diner where Jenna serves and (especially, well, uniquely) makes pies, and Andy Griffith is the nice-but-demeaning water (he better get his two waters AND have time to read the horoscope!)

There are times when the movie goes into perhaps being too 'cute' or 'quirky'; this is from the same studio, Fox Searchlight, that would a few months later put out another story of an uncertain-in-her-life young woman, Juno, and there's points this dips into being a story that is so light it might float away (or another way to put it on the other extreme is that it's a more grounded version of Pushing Daisies). And oddly enough if there's one part of the movie that doesn't work for me it's ironically Shelley's own sub-plot, where she's another waitress courted by a stone-cold Nebbish with a capital N, and who have an argument in the diner which kind of grinds the movie to a halt.

But I can forgive (most of) that for how pure the relationship is between Russell and Fillion on screen; I wish I saw more of Nathan FIllion in movies, or at least in leads like this where he gets to develop a character and he shows us just enough to get to understand why he's doing the things he is. Or, on the reverse, not entirely know why, again this is from Jenna's point of view and that's crucial - we're seeing it through HER eyes, through the downtrodden hero we want to see get out of her loveless marriage. Though some parts are funny (scattered really), it's actually more of a drama with a light touch, and it feels harrowing at times in the scope of a low-middle class, blue collar existence: what does one do with the options presented, i.e. bad marriage, a baby on the way that may/may not be loved, and an affair that is hot but untenable?

Russell guides all of these conflicts of the character beautifully, leading up to a conclusion that is genuine and moving. To a further point, knowing about the horrible circumstances outside of the production - Shelley was murdered just before the film was released, though it was finished at the time - makes the very ending a real lump-in-the-throat moment (or just cry your eyes out, go for it). Waitress wears its emotions on its sleeve, but it carries its sincerity along both in the writing and performances, so it's a tough film to ever put down all that much.

I wasn't looking forward to this movie... I went because it was a free preview and more importantly to support Nathan Fillion. It was a lot better than I expected. Nathan was great of course - all of his nervous business was hilarious. It was fun to see him playing a sensitive guy. And I loved Cheryl Hines.

I enjoyed the story a lot, although it does tend to get a little cloying. There's plenty of acid humor to balance it out.

I was hysterical crying at the end of the film, thinking what a horrible tragedy it is that Adrienne Shelly won't be making any more films. She definitely had a lot of talent - I can't get her "Gonna Make a Pie" song out of my head.