JohnHowardReid
Yes, we have two movies of the same name released in the same year. This one is not really a comedy, although it is advertised as such and does indeed have its comic moments. It's a sad picture really, its poignancy rendered even more chillingly dramatic by the murder of writer/director/player Adrienne Shelly by an intruder in her New York office/apartment halfway through 2006. Presumably, the movie was edited without her guidelines and it simply runs too long. I'm sure that had she lived, Adrienne would have trimmed the first half of the movie which tends to be both repetitious and inconsequential and even – let's fact it! – boring! With the entrance of the new doctor, however, the last half of the movie becomes very poignant and I'm not really giving anything away by saying that it comes to a rather downbeat conclusion that is not unexpected but still rather sad. Admittedly, a New York reviewer had the opposite response – "Leaves you feeling good!" he wrote. Admittedly, performances are good all around, and as the lead character, Keri Russell is nothing short of outstanding! The superb 20th Century Fox DVD has some wonderful extras.
adi_2002
The story is simple. A waitress has an abusive husband and she get's pregnant and goes to the local doctor for consultation and she falls in love with him and between them begins a love romance.I'm truly amazed by the high rating. I don't say it's a bad movie just that is simple and nothing too fancy about it. Just the drama of an ordinary American woman and her daily routines at work and at home. Also we are not told why her husband has this vile behavior for his wife, in fact what she ever do to him that deserves this treatment? There a many movies with mystery in witch a review is hard to write because after you watched you still don't get it, even if you watch more then once but here is not the case so I still think is a too appreciate film for it's trite content. If you are bored in one afternoon and you are in the mood to watch a story life, this is a good pick, but that's all.
Desertman84
Waitress is a comedy-drama film written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, who also appears in a supporting role.Incidentally,it was the final film from actress/filmmaker.The movie debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah just months after the director was discovered dead in her New York City apartment -- the victim of a homicide.Keri Russell plays Jenna, a waitress living in the American South, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage with the abusive Earl,played by Jeremy Sisto. She works in Joe's Pie Diner, where her job includes creating inventive pies with unusual titles inspired by her life, such as the "Bad Baby Pie" she invents after her unwanted pregnancy is confirmed. Jenna longs to run away from her dismal marriage, and is slowly accumulating money to do so. She pins her hopes for escape on a pie contest in a nearby town, which offers a $25,000 grand prize, but her husband won't let her go. Her only friends are coworkers Becky and Dawn ,and Joe, the curmudgeonly owner of the diner and several other local businesses, who encourages her to begin a new life elsewhere.Jenna's life changes after she meets her new physician, Jim Pomatter,portrayed by Nathan Fillion.She fears that her dreams are all but dead when handsome Dr. Pomatter reveals that she is soon to become a mother. As Jenna begins penning a series of letters to her unborn baby, her life starts to change for the better in ways she never could have imagined. Adrienne Shelly's lasting legacy is this exquisite, engaging film about slices of life.The performances are more than satisfactory as Keri Russell is luminous as Jenna and Jeremy Sisto plays excellent as her abusive husband as he was able to make his abhorrent character relatable.Obviously,it is a small movie set in a small town, and features actors who were most famous for parts on the small screen. but nevertheless,it also just happens to be one of the more entertaining movies of the year.
moonspinner55
The late Adrienne Shelly wrote, directed, and co-stars in this modest comedy wherein a small town pie-maker (who works as a waitress at the diner she makes desserts for!) considers leaving her abusive husband for her handsome--but already-married--obstetrician. To complicate matters, she finds she's pregnant for the first time (after the husband got her drunk one night), though this only seems to sweeten the pot for the doctor, who wants to run off with her anyhow. Keri Russell is very fetching and grounded in the leading role, but her character (who has been making delicious treats her entire life) comes off as an underachiever, with no money and no hope in turning her baking talents into a lucrative profession. Jeremy Sisto's angry, selfish husband fares no better; wouldn't he want his wife bringing home more money...or is he happy struggling along from paycheck to paycheck? The condition that he's so jealous he won't allow her to try for bigger prospects is a lazy, illogical out, and the scenes between husband and wife are both unpleasant and unconvincing. Shelly has created some engaging, folksy supporting roles (such as Andy Griffith's salty proprietor), but because the movie has only one foot in reality, the situations these people are involved in do not come to much. The humor is quirky-cute though not terribly funny, while the Southern milieu, the life in the diner, and the side-threads of romance each fail to come off. ** from ****
AD
