Waitress Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)May 17th, 2007
WAITRESS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2007 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Cute and quirky, WAITRESS is a delicious little movie that will have you savoring every tasty morsel. Its on-going joke, which miraculously never gets stale, concerns the intertwining of the title character's pie creating skills with her thought processes.
A never lovelier or more endearing Keri Russell ("Felicity") plays Jenna, a world class pie chef, who works at Joe's Pie Shop in a generic small Southern town. Andy Griffith is delightful as Old Joe, the acerbic owner of the restaurant and just about every other business around. Bitter on the outside, he has a sweet center that few, except for Jenna, his favorite waitress, ever realize.
Jenna is a renowned "pie genius" who creates at least one new pie a day. The ingredients are imaginative and colorful, giving the movie a sumptuous LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE appearance. But what make the pies so unique are their names, which are like comic book thought bubbles. The names reflect Jenna's emotional state. And, given her awful marriage to a loser of a redneck named Earl (Jeremy Sisto), most of the names are bursting with negative connotations, like "I Don't Want Earl's Baby Pie."
Other pies, however, such as "Falling in Love Chocolate Mousse Pie," reflect the potential improvement in Jenna's love life. Changes, however, are complicated, since she is straying out of her abusive marriage to secretly date Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion, "Drive"), the new ob-gyn in town. Dr. Pomatter, who wants Jenna to call him by his first name, which she always refuses to do, is lovably awkward and inarticulate. He also, inconveniently, has a wife, which for all we know may be as sweet as pie.
The chemistry between Jenna and Dr. Pomatter is precious, but always a bit quirky since they are both already attached to someone else. Another great relationship is Jenna's with Earl's unborn baby, whom she resents. She writes "it" -- Jenna doesn't want to know the sex -- long letters referring to it so vociferously as "Baby" that you half expect her to name it "Baby." Her missives are full of funny resentments.
The movie is full of plots and subplots but stays within the traditional hour and three-quarter length. One part is set at the pie shop and concerns Jenna's close relationship with the two other waitresses, played quite well by Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Shelly. Shelly also wrote and directed the movie. In fact, the only thing bad about the good-spirited and warmly-humorous WAITRESS is what happened to Shelly in real life. She was murdered in her New York apartment by an illegal immigrant shortly before the movie's release. So, you will not see any more of her pictures, which is a shame. A bigger shame would be if you miss seeing this one.
WAITRESS runs 1:47. It is rated PG-13 for "sexual content, language and thematic elements" and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, May 18, 2007. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: [email protected]
***********************************************************************
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email?
Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
