WAITRESS
(PG-13)
MOVIE: ** (out of 5)
DVD EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5)
STARRING
Keri Russell as JENNA
Nathan Fillion as DR. POMATTER
Cheryl Hines as BECKY
Jeremy Sisto as EARL
Andy Griffith as OLD JOE
Adrienne Shelly as DAWN
Eddie Jemison as OGIE
Lew Temple as CAL
Directed by: Adirenne Shelly
Studio: FOX Searchlight
BY KEVIN CARR
If you’re not a fan of the indie hit “Waitress,” you have to tread on thin ice. After all, when the writer/director phenom who brought her dream to fruition is murdered during post-production, being critical is kinda hard. But then again, I’ve never been one to stoop to sentimentality in lieu of honesty.
It’s not that I hated “Waitress.” It’s just that I didn’t think it was great. For what it’s worth – a quirky indie comedy exploring a young woman’s yearning to move on to a bigger world – it worked. Keri Russell plays a waitress in a small diner who hates her job, hates her husband and hates her lot in life. When she discovers that she’s pregnant, she struggles with her emotions and the pressures of the world and uses the event to push herself to make a better life.
My biggest beef with “Waitress” is that it’s full of whiney characters that eventually make the right decisions only after an unprecedented amount of hand-wringing. On one hand, the story isn’t neat, with Jenna having an affair with her OB/GYN without the comfort of the shrewish wife. But on the other hands, things do wrap up neatly in an independent film sort of way.
Jeremy Sisto takes things too far as the awful and abusive husband. The character is just too unbelievably terrible, and ultimately it’s annoying to see Jenna trapped by nothing more than her own insecurities. After all, this isn’t the 1850s. Women can leave their husbands. They do it all the time.
The DVD comes with several behind-the-scenes featurettes about the production, the actors and the pies. There’s also commentary from the producer and Keri Russell and FOX Movie Channel spotlights on the cast. Also included is a heartfelt memorial to Adrienne Shelly as well as a push for the Adirenne Shelly Foundation. Oddly enough, there is no explanation of how Shelly lost her life, but I would imagine that most fans of the film already know what happened.
Ultimately, it’s a real shame that Adirenne Shelly suffered such a fate because she definitely had a handle on movie making. This could have been her “Bottle Rocket,” and her later works could have been stellar. Sadly, she was taken from the world right when she was on the verge of making some great films.