“Waitress” is an utterly lovely movie that ought to be pure fun to talk about. The movie itself is fun; the epilogue to its making is tragic.
“Waitress” is the final film from actress-turned-director Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered last November (the film had already been completed). Shelly was a fixture on the independent scene for years, but “Waitress” would likely have made her into a legitimate Hollywood filmmaker, if that was her goal.
It’s a low-budget effort made with considerable care. The movie revolves around Jenna (Keri Russell), a pie-baking wizard who waits tables in a small-town diner. In the opening scene she discovers she’s pregnant – not happy news, because she’s weary of her piggish husband (Jeremy Sisto).
To Jenna, the upside of pregnancy is meeting the new town sawbones, Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion, from “Serenity”). He’s smitten by her (and her pies, of course), although he’s married, too.
Jenna gets moral support from her waitressing galpals, played to perfection by Cheryl Hines (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) and Shelly herself. She also carries on her sassy friendship with the diner’s retired owner, who is played by … Andy Griffith? How great is that?
The story dawdles along most agreeably, without ever resorting to saccharine. People sit on benches at night, talking about life and waiting for the bus. The doctor and his patient have cryptic exchanges that sound a lot like falling in love. And Andy Griffith comments on the weather.
That might not sound like a movie, but it is. As charming as the set-up is, Shelly keeps a bit of tartness in the recipe. There is an adulterous affair at the center of things, after all, and Jenna remains unexcited about her baby throughout her pregnancy. In a culture that enshrines motherhood, that’s radical.
The elfin Adrienne Shelly began her career acting in Hal Hartley’s early movies, such as “The Unbelievable Truth” and “Trust.” This film has some of Hartley’s wry sense of dialogue, which sounds deliciously “written” in a way that most naturalistic movies don’t. She might also have been inspired by Preston Sturges’ classic “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” which similarly hung on the effect of a surprise pregnancy on a small town.
Nathan Fillion makes an all-new kind of comic romantic lead, and Keri Russell finds the defining role she’s been looking for since her TV days on “Felicity.” She never tries to act cute, yet she recognizes where the fun is. It would have been nice to see what she and Shelly would have done in the future.
Keri Russell stars in “Waitress.”
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