FauxNixon

Waitress is the 2007 movie starring Keri Russell as Jenna, a bored waitress at a local restaurant specializing in custom pies created by Russell’s character.  Pie is used as a metaphor and an internal dialog as the pies are created within Jenna’s head and named after whatever is happening at the moment, for example, “I Just Stubbed My Toe and It Fucking Hurts” pie.  It’s reasonably sweet and clever and really just works.

Jenna is trapped in an unfulfilling job where her ingenuity is responsible for much of the shop’s success and she is forced to constantly deal with an abusive, controlling husband, a surly manager at the restaurant, and the restaurant’s owner who puts on a facade of being a grouchy old man.  Through an unexpected pregnancy and the development of her friendship with the restaurants owner, and a short-lived affair with a local OB-GYN (Nathan Fillion), Jenna is able to let go of the things in her life which make her miserable and move on, independently and happy, into a future with her child.

Waitress is a sweet and touching story that has some of the aspects of a bed-time story, but retains its ability to seem very plausible.  The movie is written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, who also plays Dawn, one of the two other waitresses at the restaurant.  Unfortunately, this will also be the final movie from Adrienne Shelly due to her death in 2006.  It is a well-done picture and Jenna’s ability to create new pies in her mind has the same repeating-sequence of images that is employed by Darren Aronofsky in Requiem for a Dream.