I was able to score tickets to an advance screening of Waitress, so I get to do a review of an entire movie for you! The screening provided the viewers with small apple pies from a Manhattan bakery, and since the way to my heart is indeed through baked goods, it is somewhat difficult for me to be overly critical of this film. But I shall put my Homer Simpson-like love of pastries aside and review this film with an unbiased mind. You can read Julie’s review of the Waitress trailer and learn a bit about it’s tragic back-story here.

Keri Russell is Jenna, the titular waitress, and she gives the word ‘miserable’ a whole new definition. She’s trapped in a boring southern town, working as a waitress at a diner, and married to a man she no longer loves (played with the perfect blend of pathetic and horse’s ass by Jeremy Sisto). Then, to add insult to injury, she’s pregnant. The pregnancy is unplanned and very much unwanted (Jenna had actually vowed to stop sleeping with her husband, he had to get her liquored up to do the deed). The only solace in Jenna’s life is her pies. She is revered as a sort of Michelangelo of pies in her town and finds comfort in inventing new pie recipes that coincide with whatever is going on in her life at the moment (which is how they get names like ‘I Hate My Husband Pie’ and ‘Bad Baby Pie’). Her dream is to take first place at an upcoming pie contest, collect the $25,000 prize money, get the hell out of Dodge, and open up her own pie shop somewhere far, far away.

While her plan seems simple enough, it’s anything but.

Click here to continue reading Waitress..Mmm…Pie.

It is impossible to talk about Waitress without discussing its sad backstory. Waitress was written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, an independent film actress who began making her own films in 1994. Last November, Shelly was found dead in her Manhattan apartment in what was presumed to be a suicide. A few days later, a housepainter that Shelly had hired confessed to the murder. When she died, Shelly had already finished Waitress and was waiting to hear whether the movie had been accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance committee had already selected Waitress before Shelly died, and in January the film played to capacity crowds at Sundance and shortly sold to Fox Searchlight for $5 million.

After watching the trailer, I’m not surprised that Waitress was one of Sundance’s bigger sales. Although it is undoubtedly aimed at women, Waitress is not your typical chick flick and looks far superior to most films of that genre. (We’re talking about you, Georgia Rule.) Keri Russell plays a Jenna, Southern waitress who is pregnant, unhappily married, and feeling trapped by her own life. By day, Jenna works at a diner with waitresses played by Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Cheryl Hines and by Shelly herself, behind big black glasses. By night, she pours her heart into unique pies and writes letters to her unborn baby. Jeremy Sisto plays Jenna’s husband and the one and only Andy Griffith plays one of Jenna’s regular customers.

In short, Waitress looks to be a poignant comedy about what happens when life doesn’t turn out just as you’d hoped it would. I definitely want to SEE IT when Waitress opens in limited release on May 2. (Official Site)

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