Waitress

(The following is an unedited version of my review for The Aggie)

Watching Waitress is just like eating a warm, sweet slice of pie. It’s satisfying and fulfilling, but it leaves one wanting just a bit more. Although the film centers on Jenna, a waitress in a small town southern diner, the collection of eccentric pies that she craftily bakes are also central pieces to the story.

Waitress celebrates the empowerment that one young woman finds through both her baked goods and her unborn baby. Keri Russell, best known for her curly-haired persona on the series “Felicity,” evolves from her college character and blossoms into a talented baker who lives with a good-for-nothing husband and begins having an affair with her doctor, after learning that she has her very own bun in the oven.

Russell is charming as ever as Jenna, in which the southern twang of her voice adds to the sweetness of her character, who is a politely outspoken and independent dreamer, but not when it comes to her demanding and pathetic husband. Russell easily captures the conflicting emotions that Jenna feels as she wants to leave her husband and as she falls for her new doctor, as it can easily be seen on her face with the slightest change of expression.

Throughout the film, Jenna’s emotions are narrated into recipes for pies that reflect her ever-changing moods between her lousy marriage and hopeful affair. She titles one such pie, “Pregnant Miserable Self Pitying Loser Pie,” as she remains rather unenthused about her pregnancy. She also talks in voiceovers to her unborn child, with both resentment at the troubles it is bringing to her life and with utter joy as to the changes it could possibly cause.

With the use of narration and tableau-like shots, which highlight particular scenes to more closely observe the characters’ settings, an element of hyperbole exists to enrich what could be a simple story of a good girl in a bad situation. Although Jenna’s husband’s antics and requests are appalling and slightly overdone, it makes for a more heartbreaking position for Jenna to be in, as she submits her own wants to his needs.

Late director, writer and co-star, Adrienne Shelly, presents a unique story, focusing on Jenna and the other two waitresses at the diner. They all live in a dead-end world with little opportunity, yet each remain hopeful for either better things to come or purely the little pleasures in life. The other two waitresses, played by Shelly and Cheryl Hines, are quirky, enthusiastic coworkers and friends to Jenna, with problems of their own. The three are an uplifting trio for each other as they face series of unhappiness while managing to serve customers with big, sparkling white smiles.

Like many romantic comedies, certain aspects of the story are nicely concluded, but it is no fairy tale. Having amusing characters, such as the diner’s owner, played by Andy Griffith, a glowing performance by Russell and a poignant story by Shelly, the film is a therapeutic, feel-good story in the same way that Jenna takes solace in her baked remedies. With the right balance of comedy and drama, Waitress is also served as a pie should be – neither too hot nor too cold, but just right.