Waitress Details

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[Highly rated reviewer]

Waitress

Adrienne Shelly's fourth film as writer/director is one of those wonderful surprises that the cinema, every so often, hands to you. At first glance you've seen it all before; a woman (Russell) trapped in an unhappy marriage to a man she doesn't even like anymore (Sisto) who falls pregnant and looks for a way to escape the rut her life is in, perhaps through a relationship with the handsome new doctor in town (Fillion). As with so many things though Waitress is all in the execution.

Shelly's script just sparkles. It's loaded end to end with jokes, the great bulk of them laugh out loud funny. What makes Waitress stand out though is that all these jokes feel organic. These aren’t words put into people’s mouths, they come from the characters, each of whom establishes his or her own distinct voice. Shelly wisely keeps the direction simple for the most part and the film grounded solidly in reality, which allows the scripts broader moments to be easier to accept.

She’s also helped in this by her excellent cast. Keri Russell is an actress I’ve only seen briefly and, to be honest, never thought a great deal of. What a difference here. The whole movie rests on Russell’s shoulders and she’s brilliant in it. Jenna’s a cutie and a sweet person but Russell and Shelly refuse to make her perfect; she can be short tempered, she cheats on her husband with a married man and she doesn’t love her coming baby…. And yet Russell is so magnetic and funny that you can’t help but love Jenna and root for her every step of the way. Nathan Fillion is effective as the constantly on edge Dr Pomater and his effortless way with a one-liner, honed under Joss Whedon, is a gift for the movie. The pie diner at which Jenna works provides a strong supporting cast too with Cheryl Hines amusingly dense, but not a little touching, as Becky and Shelly herself, sweetly funny as Dawn. Also worth mentioning are scene nabbing turns from Eddie Jemison and from Andy Griffith.

Waitress, unlike most rom-coms, doesn’t offer simple answers. It doesn’t tie everything up in a nice neat bow with everyone happy and smiling as the credits roll. It’s much more interesting and shaded than that.

That said this is an amazingly sweet film, but one which manages to carry that tone off without becoming so sugary as to be cloying.

There is sadness behind Waitress though. This is the final film by Adrienne Shelly, soon after it was completed and mere days after its acceptance to the Sundance film festival Shelly was murdered in a senseless attack in her office. There could be no better tribute than this film, it’s as alive and as engaging as any released in a very long time and will ensure that though we won’t have any more films from this hugely promising writer/director we’ll remember and treasure this one at least.

waitress

this is an excellent film, would recommend it!