Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Michael Bianchi There is something painfully dark and disturbing about this movie - a film about a waitress (duh) that becomes pregnant by her abusive husband and begins an affair with her gynecologist - that bothered me from the time I stopped watching it. It wasn't the husband, who was so cartoonishly evil that he removed any emotional punch of the abuse storyline as he played less like an actual person than a method actor in the midst of a very poor production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Nor was it the tired trope of women cheating for reasons that humanizes and makes us understand them while men do it because . . . well, men cheat. (The lead character's husband is abusive and selfish in bed - of course - and her coworker's affair is justified by her husband being in a vegetative state and sleeping in a separate room. Both of the men they have affairs with have blameless, wonderful wives they are apparently happily married to.) Nor even the implication that the only good thing a man can do is die as the only major male character not abjectly terrible serves as a deus ex machina who manages to write our saintly heroine an enormous check before having the courtesy to kick the bucket and not be seen again.No, actually, those tropes don't bother me because I could as easily point to a zillion zany guy comedies where women are shrewish, joyless nags or soulless objects of desire who appear long enough to showcase either their fronts or rears and then return to the factory floor to be pulled for the next showcase. It would by hypocritical to find my moral outrage for that.What is uniquely ugly about this film is a device wherein a woman appears in several scenes with her unruly, awful, out-of-control 6-year-old boy - who spends every second of screen time ruthlessly tormenting his poor mother. These are meant to show what Waitress fears about childbirth - and it is apparently having a boy. The implication seems to be strongly that had she not gotten her 'happy' ending of having a girl in the film's climax, she would have simply remained miserable.It is a gross hatred of boys, an equivalent I couldn't imagine in another film. Men are not awful, this film says, because of a patriarchal society that indoctrinates them. It is not the actions of her awful husband or the philandering doctor that ruin a woman's life, but the mere act of being born with a penis. I think the 'pro-life' message so many Christian conservatives are finding in this film would not exist if they did not imply early and often her child would be a girl. I wonder if the writer/director of this film was going through a rough spot in her marriage when writing this? Working out feelings about her father? I read before her tragic death she had a daughter . . . and thank god for that, because I would worry even more about the implications if she'd actually had a son. (I hope, if she did, this aspect would've changed.)Ultimately this disgusting aspect drags a mediocre film with a couple of lights to a level that makes it, well, kind of awful.

Jackson Booth-Millard I heard about this independent film, which I really wanted to see, because I knew the writer and director Adrienne Shelly died not long after filming had finished, and not long before it was headlining a film festival, I assumed her death was either an accident or suicide, I had no idea she was murdered! Basically Jenna Hunterson (Dark Skies' Keri Russell) works at Joe's Diner in a small town in the American South as a waitress, inventing many varieties of delicious pies, she hopes to get away from her abusive husband Earl Hunterson (Jeremy Sisto), and has been saving a thousand and hidden it around the house. Her plans suddenly change when she finds herself pregnant with her husband's baby, this is not something she wants but is going to give birth, and it certainly urges her more to enter a pie baking contest to win the $25,000 prize. Tracking Jenna's pregnancy progress is new physician Dr. Jim Pomatter (Nathan Fillion), who at first she is unwilling to talk to much seeing how he is not her usual doctor she has known since childhood, and of course she shows no enthusiasm for the unborn child. She hides this pregnancy for her grouchy boss Cal (Lew Temple) as she is sure he will fire her, but actually he doesn't care, and continuing work she bonds with her only friends, co-workers Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly), and cantankerous diner owner Old Joe (Andy Griffith) who offers her wisdom. As Jenna spends more time with Dr. Pomatter, who is also married himself, they start seeing each other both in and out of the medical office and having mutual attraction start an affair, and of course he enjoys her delectable pies. The baby is nearing the point of coming out, there is a point when Earl obviously knows she is pregnant, but also discovers the hidden money and she is forced to pretend it is for a baby crib, which she buys with her saved money. Jenna ends the affair with Dr. Pomatter, has a visit from Old Joe who is being treated himself, and soon after she gives birth to a baby girl, it turns out to be something she is really happy about, and bonding with the child she finds the strength to be blunt to Earl and say that she hasn't loved him for years. She is upset to find out that Joe went into a coma and will most likely die, but she remembered he gave her an envelope before the birth, it is a hand-drawn card sketch, and also she is shocked to receive a cheque for $270,450, with a message to start her life afresh. The final scenes see Jenna and her girl she named Lulu (as a toddler played by Shelley's real daughter Sophie Ostroy) bonding joyfully, she does win the pie baking contest, and she taken over the diner renamed Lulu's Pies where her friends and customer enjoy the brightly coloured pies served everyday. Also starring Eddie Jemison as Ogie and Darby Stanchfield as Francine Pomatter. Russell gives a really sweet performance as the woman passionate about pies and trying to find herself while finding new love, Fillion is likable as the doctor and love interest, and the supporting cast members all do well, including Shelley as an eccentric fellow waitress, the story is nice and simple, flows really nicely mixing well though funny, loving and dramatic moments, including with the subjects of motherhood and unhappy marriage, and the pies look really nice, it is such a shame what happened to Shelley, as this is a really heartwarming romantic comedy. Very good!

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.

NutzieFagin I have a friend that loves odd little independent flicks. We have some weekends where we go out for a movie and either she or I get to pick. Because she picks movies that I never hear of, she literally drags me kicking and screaming to the theater and I always think I will hate it--Problem is that she is never wrong.... I found Waitresss as entertaining as a fine five course meal.The plot is very simple. Meet Jenna (Keri Russell) a pretty but quirky young woman who works as a waitress in a diner that specializes in home baked pies located in some sleepy Southern town. Jenna's only passion in life is concocting delicious pies with odd ingredients off the top of her head which she has special names for them depending on her mood or what is happening in her life. However, she feels trapped in a loveless marriage with her overbearing caveman husband, Earl (Jeremy Sisto) who treats her more like his possession than a wife. Her life changes drastically when she gets accidentally pregnant by her husband whom she plots to leave one day and win a contest to become a pie baking champion. Jenna feels hopeless for her life but again fate lends a hand when she meets and has a affair with the handsome new doctor, Dr Pometter (Nathan Fullion) Now Jenna must face some choices and challenges about her life.The other characters are just as quirky. Jenna's two co-workers Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn played by the talented director herself, Adrianne Shelly are Jenna's best friends and probably considered family. The owner of the diner,rich Old Joe, played by Andy Griffith is a cranky curmudgeon with a somewhat lovable air about him. I always thought that the reason Jenna's character got along so well with Old Joe because both characters seem to look at life with a somewhat pessimistic attitude.I think the film explores the choices that people make in life--sometimes bad or morally corrupt. Nobody is condemned or ridiculed but often shown how they arrive at their chosen destination. And as we go thru life running "like chickens with their heads cut off" we may eventually arrive to a conclusion that we made the wrong choice. If so, the only right thing to do is "make a clean break and start over" I would also advise that the film has been criticized as NOT male friendly. A lot of people feel that the male characters are blamed for all the bad things in life--I disagree and you will have to make the choice after seeing it. I think that each character made their own situations and bad choices.Also a warning, that this film will make you HUNGRY! Various pie recipes are shown and by the end of the film, you'll probably be looking for desert. It also has made me somewhat of a pie maker myself! It is a tragedy that such a talent like Adrianne Shelly was taken away from us before her time. I believe that had she lived, she would be seeing Academy Award.