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#1
05-21-2007, 09:28 AM
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Waitress
SPOILERS!!
I have never been a fan of Keri Russell, and my wife wanted to see this a lot more than I did. However, it is a consistently funny and quite charming little movie that is worth checking out if you're ever in the mood for an alternative to the big blockbusters. The story is simple and routine. Russell is Jenna, a waitress at a small town diner that specializes in pie. She is stuck in a bad marriage to Earl (Jeremy Sisto). Earl won't let her have a car, keeps all of the money she makes and demands that she does whatever he says whenever he says it. The diner features 27 of Jenna's pies, plus a daily special. They are baked fresh every day. Her life provides the inspiration for the daily special, and also gives the movie a unique little spin on a familiar tale. Jenna has secretly been stashing some of the money she makes waitressing, and her plan is to leave Earl and enter a pie contest with a grand prize of $25,000. That will give her a fresh start, and maybe she could open her own store. Two events change her plan. She gets pregnant and she begins an affair with the new doctor in town, Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion). There really isn't anything new here. Earl is as one-dimensional as bad husbands get in the movies, and though we know Dr. Pomatter is married, the movie cheats by never talking about or showing his wife (until the very end). This prevents us from thinking badly of him for cheating on someone because we never hear or see that person. Like they often are in movies about small towns, the side characters are quirky. Despite all this, Waitress still works. The cast is good, especially Russell, who is extremely appealing here. The laughs are frequent, and the pie angle is fresh and fun. It's a delightful little movie. 7/10 
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#2
05-21-2007, 10:50 AM
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Very interested in seeing this, as a lot of you know I'm a huge Nathan Fillion fan. Glad to see a mostly positive review. I've been hearing a lot of good things. Of course, I'll probably have to wait for DVD, seeing as how my area's not real good for getting smaller films...
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#3
05-21-2007, 07:05 PM
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#4
05-21-2007, 07:34 PM
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#6
05-23-2007, 12:05 AM
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Saw this tonight..
 I don't think I've ever seen a film that surprised me more than Waitress. It was a film I was expecting to enjoy but find a tad underrated. I couldn't have been more wrong. The end result was a moving, hysterical, emotional movie and the best of 2007 thus far and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it stayed my top film of this year. Every year I have one movie that I can watch over and over again and becomes one of my favorite films of all time, last year it was Little Children and this year it is most definitely Waitress. It is powered by fantastic performances given by Keri Russell, Andy Griffith, Nathan Fillion, Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines and the late Adrienne Shelly, who also wrote the fantastic script, as well as directed it. I cried at least four times in this movie. At times it was because of the things happening on the screen because they felt so real and at times because I could relate to them so much. I don't remember ever crying when credits start to roll but I most certainly did when this ended. I also loved the soundtrack, the lullaby song was great and Keri Russell sounded great singing it. I also loved how it was the first song in the end credits. Everyone, PLEASE see this film. It's hard to imagine that a better one will come along this year. 10/10 (A+)
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#7
05-25-2007, 08:57 AM
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Being a huge fan of Jeremy Sisto, I've been wanting to see this for a long time. I don't think this is showing in my area though.
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#8
05-25-2007, 09:29 AM
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It should show eventually. It should get into 1500+ theaters sometimes. Jeremy Sisto is quite good in the film, though compared to the other performances in the film he's not as great. I loved his orgasm scene though.
 It was hysterical.
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#9
05-25-2007, 12:28 PM
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If there's one thing I hate about the internet, is that it gives assholes like these a place to spew their "trying too hard to shock and be edgy" crap.
http://ruthlessreviews.com/reviews.c.../waitress.html
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#10
05-26-2007, 01:22 PM
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Ruthless Reviews is horrible, almost every review claims that the film is somehow a connection or parallel to politics/religion. Their review of The Hills Have Eyes where the writer says that it's a message about masculinity and liberals is one of the worst things I've read. Even their review of 300 (which is a direct adaptation of something from 1998) goes into detail about how it's a parallel for the Iraq war.
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#11
05-28-2007, 09:47 AM
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That guy's got some serious problems , have some respect for someone who has passed away . If he doesn't agree with the attention the film is getting , okay , but there's no need to soil the memory of someone who seemed like an actual human being , a good person .
Spoilers And , this is coming from someone who has about zero interest in watching waitress , it's just not my kind of film , but i always liked Shelley , ever since her Hal Hartley days , her best film is Trust in my opinion , but if what i'm reading is true , i can't take another saved at the last minute and everything is okay now films . It's more than that though , i'll have a hard time watching it because she's not with us anymore . I am glad though that the film is doing excellent , it would have been nice if she was still here to enjoy the success , i'm sure she would have improved with each film , one thing is for sure , Hal Hartley is def proud of his protege .
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#12
11-18-2007, 07:43 PM
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First thing I did once I watched this movie was go upstairs and curse my mother for leaving me her softie genes as I wiped the tears from my face.
No lie, this movie left me a blubbering mess when I was finished, that's how awesome it is, the last movie I cried at was Titanic. Everyone is so awesome in this movie, even Jeremy Sisto who I spent most of the movie hating. Keri Russell should get some awards nominations for sure, and Adrienne Shelly getting a posthumous nomination for screenplay but I don't know if that'll happen. Just great. It's a tribute to how awesome this year is that this is just south of my top ten. 10/10
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#14
11-19-2007, 02:03 AM
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i saw this at the movies on the weekend.LOVED IT,keri russell was amazing in the lead role.
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#15
11-19-2007, 11:59 AM
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DVD is out next week.
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#18
12-23-2007, 02:39 PM
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The romantic comedy, long reviled, especially by those of the male gender, as the ghastliest of film genres to be avoided at all costs. And for the most part, those detractors are right – the genre is mostly populated with high-caliber vanity projects with a frightfully, unrealistically optimistic outlook of life and with satisfying, circle-closing finales where everything goes according to plan and everybody is happy in the end. And if that’s not enough, these such films are usually devoid of any actual cinematic value at all – daft writing, shallow characters, shameless use of pop songs, and generally average production value, since those things aren’t at all important to sell a movie to an audience, just the stars. Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress contains the same shameless optimism and happy-go-lucky viewpoint as is expected from the genre, but is elevated to substantially higher levels of quality due to a variety of cinematic elements Shelly and her crew use to great advantage.
As a small, micro-budgeted independent film, and considering her background, it comes as no surprise that Shelly pays a lot more attention to actual cinematic quality and value than most of her other “rom-com”-helming companions. Indeed Shelly’s absolutely wonderful script contains many of the eccentricities and sass expected of independent film. Set in the deep south, Shelly’s characters talk and act like they stand on the very finest line between caricature and real human beings, and have just enough of both to be at once adorably loveable and charmingly appealing and at the same time wholly realistic and believable. The film indeed is outrageously funny, most of its comedy deriving from the quirky supporting characters that populate Jenna’s colourful world. And while Shelly does round her script off with a feel-good happy-go-lucky everything-works-out-in-the-end finale, that doesn’t at all derive from everything leading up to it, on the contrary: Optimistic feel-good movies are somewhat of a rarity in today’s modern age of cynical Hollywood. And Shelly portrays everything up until said ending with such a brilliant combination of light-hearted comedy and the downright bleakness of Jenna’s unhappy reality, and creates such a wonderfully sympathetic and downright loveable character in Jenna, that one is more than ready to forgive Shelly for giving her the happy ending she deserves. The film immensely benefits from its outstanding cast, who portray the characters perks, quirks and charm with time code persistence and put in enormously delightful performances, each and every one. Nathan Fillion, who should be in a lot more movies, is immediately loveable as the neurotic doctor and his almost blind devotion to the notion of making these two people happy is a wonder to behold. The brilliant Cheryl Hines and writer-director Adrienne Shelly herself deliver spot-on brilliant turns as Jenna’s two co-workers at the diner, and provide the best comedy of the entire film in their doubtfully-scripted dialogues and encounters. Jeremy Sisto is simply monstrous as Jenna’s overbearing husband, and yet, manages to let show just enough for us to know what Jenna saw in him before he changed for the worst after their marriage. Andy Griffith is also wonderful as the old owner of the diner who serves as a kind of mentor/father figure to Jenna’s lonely, broken woman, and the drips of sympathy and love he allows to trickle through his craggy, malicious façade are a wonder to behold. But this films brightest shining star is none other than its star, Keri Russell, who plays Jenna with such utter devotion and sheer irresistibility. The coldest person on earth could still not possibly avoid falling in love with and sympathizing with Russell’s Jenna. Her unhappiness and fatigue are tragic; her lack of enthusiasm and her cynicism are charming; her love for pie making and for happiness is inspirational. With such a beguilingly loveable character, it’s no surprise that Shelly gave her a happy ending: At the end of all things, the viewing audience can’t think of a more deserving cinematic persona to receive the happy ending treatment. And Russell is absolutely divine in the role, delivering an Oscar-caliber performance that should really put her on the leading lady map and finalize her relocation from being a television star to being a reliable leading lady of the cinema. And the pies. How can anybody review this film without mentioning the pies? After all, they play almost as an important part in the film as the characters do. Like the wine in Alexander Payne’s Sideways, the pies in Waitress serve the very important purpose of conveying Jenna’s feelings for the audience. As she invents a pie in her head, we see her visualization of the creation: The invented pies all get names according to the thoughts on her mind, and the visualizations further emphasize her feelings. If she is angry, she will violently throw in the rough, rugged ingredients; if the feelings are of happiness, she uses soft, placid ingredients, which she tenderly pats into the pie. They look so good and the characters in the film enjoy them so much, it’s impossible to watch this film without getting an immediate and urgent craving for a good pie. It’s such a tragic, tragic shame that Adrienne Shelly had to lose her life right after completing this wonderful film. It is a work that shows a whole lot of love for life, for happiness, and for the craft. And Shelly showcases such copious amounts of talent in this film, both as writer, director and actress, that the tragedy is tenfold knowing that we won’t be seeing any more work from the talented woman. This should have been the starting point, the jumping platform for a great career in feature cinema directing and writing, but that bright future was quashed in a moment of totally unnecessary, brutal, and cruel violence that has no explanation, and we can only hope to hear of as little tragedies such as this as possible. In all, Waitress is a wonderfully, vibrantly uplifting and absolutely loveable comedy, unashamed and unafraid of its blatant happy-go-lucky, feel-good nature – in fact using it for its advantage. Populated with wonderfully quirky characters and hilariously sassy comedy and aided by spot-on supporting performances by a wildly hilarious cast, the film’s true centerpiece is Keri Russell’s wonderful, exquisitely loveable, Oscar-caliber performance as the main character Jenna. Shelly employs enough cinematic and screenwriting quality to elevate this leagues above your average feel-good romantic comedy and turn it into something much more; sincerely loveable, frankly uplifting and just all-around beautiful and wonderfully entertaining. RATING: 8/10.
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#20
12-23-2007, 02:50 PM
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#22
12-23-2007, 04:19 PM
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