Now that I have been in the profession for half a year, I felt it was time to finally sit down and watch Waitress, which I had sort of always meant to do, but never got around to doing so. I'm well aware that I'm a few years behind the times, but I still felt I wanted to share my thoughts on the film.
Waitress isn't your typical happy, homespun Southern diner film. It's a rather honest look at what can happen to a person who doesn't follow their dreams.
As the poster so aptly describes her, Keri Russell's Jenna Hunterson is indeed 'tart'. Jenna is like a caged bird, trapped in a small-town life with an abusive, rat of a husband who she puts up with. Her only joy is inventing pies. As in the wonderful, but short lived Pushing Daisies, I very much enjoyed the conceit of the quirky pie maker. During the moments she is imagining pies into existence, we glimpse a much sweeter, younger version of Jenna that isn't tainted by all the struggles she has to deal with on a day to day basis. The girl who spent long days in the kitchen with her mother who made her own pies.
However, grown-up Jenna is jaded. She's distrusting. She feels and acts superior to almost everyone, except her husband (to whom she actually is a vastly superior human being). When Jenna finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, she is thrust into the arms of a doctor, played by the adorable Nathan Fillion. [Side note: I will admit that Fillion's acting/comedic style took awhile to break through to my cold heart, but now that it has (save Castle!) I adore the man! Perhaps I should re-attempt to watch Firefly.] They begin an affair. Viewers spends a good deal of the movie rooting for them to succeed as a couple because they want Jenna to get away from the arms of her scumbag husband, but it's all very unsettling. A pregnant woman is having an affair with her - married - doctor? Their relationship definitely crosses some major ethical and moral lines. It's infuriating to spend the whole movie watching Jenna cow-tow to her husband while simultaneously failing to establish something real with Dr. Pomatter.
It's infuriating but it's wonderful screenwriting. In fact, the ending - which is not pat or traditional in any way - is exactly as it should be. Real. Though we do mourn for the loss of Jenna's relationship with Dr. Pomatter (mostly because he's SO adorable), it's best for Jenna to go off on her own and not just back into the arms of another guy who could become the same kind of schmuck her husband turned into.
Bottom Line: I wouldn't call Waitress a pleasant movie, though it has it's moments of charm. I would call it a good film. It has solid writing, excellent performances by it's lead cast and a few on-the-nose glimpses of what it's like to be in the restaurant business. I'd recommend it for Fillion and Russell's performances alone - though it has much more going for it than that. Not a sure fire home run, but definitely a good line drive.
Grade: B+
