Waitress
If the new movie Waitress were a pie, it might be called “Sweet Little Movie Pie.” It might have cherries–sweet, but tart–and maybe some chocolate, and it might have whipped cream on top. It would be a pie that isn’t totally exotic, nothing we haven’t seen in a pie before, and it might not be the most elegant piping on top, but it would probably taste pretty good in the end.
The heroine of Waitress is Jenna (Keri Russell), who makes and serves life-inspired pie at a diner in an unnamed town in the South. Jenna has two waitress buddies (Cheryl Hines and the late Adrienne Shelly, who also wrote and directed the film), one cranky customer/owner, one hellish husband, and one unwanted, unborn baby (thanks to the hellish husband). She is, in a word, trapped–stuck without the strength or the means to leave her life. It’s not a particularly new or unique story, but it’s told with earnest charm and a sense that, while Jenna’s situation is a bad one, all is not lost.
The script for Waitress reads a bit like a first novel: it’s a good story, but the telling of it is sprinkled with moments of self-consciousness. We can overlook the awkward patches, though, because for each of them, Shelly snuck in a moments that feel graceful and true. She dealt especially well with the interactions of the lower-pressure supporting characters–the storylines that don’t affect the outcome of the movie, per se, but give us local color and people to root for other than Jenna. Things get better as the movie goes on and finds it rhythm. But there’s a period toward the beginning where everything’s just a little bit studied and a a little bit too carefully arranged.
The performances are reasonably strong all around–Russell does a fine job, and Hines and Shelly give her some good gal-pal backup. As Jenna’s lover/Ob-Gyn, Nathan Fillion is impressive mostly in that he’s so restrained. It’s tempting to hold him to the standard of his signature role, Capt. Mal Reynolds, and it’s surprising to see him go in a completely different direction with himself. It’s weird but kind of fun to watch him–a dynamic actor–fit himself carefully into a role that is, frankly, far less dynamic than he is.
In all, Waitress is unlikely to sweep the Oscars next year, or spawn a new school of filmmaking, but it’s a good movie. It’s funny, sweet, and offers a welcome respite from the school of noisy/somber action-dramas we’re seeing these days. Just beware: it might make you want to bake.
Waitress, Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Adrienne Shelly, independent film, movie reviews
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