Reviews by Matt

After more then a month, I finally got the chance to go see a movie. It was not one this summer’s blockbusters with pirates or robots that turn into cars. It was not one of the multitudes of animated children’s movies or one of the endless sequels. It was the simple story of a waitress.

In “Waitress,” Jenna (Keri Russell) works at a restaurant in the South. She has an amazing ability to invent pies and loves her job. She is unhappily married to Earl (Jeremy Sisto) who is very controlling and takes all her money. She hides away as much money as she can so that one day she will have enough to get away from her controlling husband. She dreams of entering and winning a pie baking competition, but Earl refuses to let her leave.

One day she finds that, much to her dismay, she is pregnant. She decides to keep this from her husband and only lets her fellow co-workers, Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly), know her little secret. As she goes in for her checkups she begins to fall in love with and eventually has an affair with Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion).

Keri Russell is really good and gives the best performance of the movie. Jenna is a good person who is dealing with unfortunate circumstances. Her husband treats her with no respect and feels like she cannot fend for herself. Russell plays Jenna as both weak and strong at the same time. Jenna is strong in every other aspect of her life and has hopes and dreams, but in her marriage she becomes submissive and almost afraid of her husband.

The surprise performance of this movie is Andy Griffith as Old Joe the owner of the restaurant where Jenna works. The other waitresses dislike him because he is demanding and can be somewhat mean towards them. Jenna does not see him this way, she befriends him and they become close over the course of the film. He knows all about her situation and he tells her that it is never too late to start over. He is the one who gives her the motivation to keep on trying. Griffith plays Joe as both funny and poignant. Joe is a man who knows what he wants and demands that it that way, but he also is a genuine, caring person who wants what is best for Jenna.

“Waitress” is writer/director Adrienne Shelly’s last movie before she was murdered in her New York City apartment. Even with that looming in the back of the mind, this movie is still very good. Shelly wrote some really great and loveable characters. None of the characters slow the movie down, they each have their parts to play and keep the story going. All signs point to this being Shelly’s breakout movie. Sadly, she never got to see the success this movie has been. It spent three weeks in the top 10 peaking at number five.

“Waitress” is an original, funny, genuine and touching movie. It doesn’t have any of the Hollywood big shots or huge special effects. It is a movie that is driven by a story and by the characters. All the performances are really good and make this movie what it is.

8 our of 10
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and thematic elements.
Runtime: 107 min