Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Waitress Serves up a Slice of Hilarity and Heartache


Last night I revisited Sundance Cinemas 608 to see Waitress, a movie I have been dying to see since attending the Sundance Film Festival in January. The film was much hyped at the festival in the wake of writer/director Adrienne Shelley’s brutal murder on November 1, 2006 in her New York apartment office. The film, starring Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Adrienne Shelly, Jeremy Sisto and Andy Griffith, is the story of a sweet, southern pie-making extraordinaire waitress named Jenna (Keri Russell), who is stuck in a horrible marriage to Earl, her controlling and jealous husband, and doesn’t realize her own strength. When Jenna discovers, to her great dismay, that she is pregnant, she finds herself more trapped than ever in a life of poverty and unhappiness. Although she feels helpless, Jenna does find great pride and joy in her latest pie creation, and solace and friendship in co-workers Becky and Dawn, as well as Old Joe, the owner of the diner at which she works. She also finds a reason to smile when she meets gynecologist Dr. Pomatter, a handsome, neurotic, gentle (and married) man with whom she has a sweet and passionate love affair. In the end, she finds inner-strength and happiness, and the greatest love of her life.

I loved the film. It’s sweet, sarcastic, genuine, and optimistic, with a very witty sense of humor. The characters have great depth, warmth, and authenticity. The story could have easily been too sweet, or too predictable. But instead, as New York Times film reviewer A.O. Scott describes, “[Shelley] has tamed and shaped [realism], finding a perfect, difficult-to-achieve balance of enchantment and plausibility. The story, in which resilience is rewarded, and meanness is banished, is comforting without feeling unduly sentimental, thanks to its mood of easygoing, tolerant honesty. If “Waitress” were more strenuously uplifting, it might be labeled a feel-good movie, but it isn’t that. It’s just a movie that leaves you feeling good.” The film certainly left me feeling good, and wanting very much to see it again.

Apparently the film was inspired by Shelley’s own feelings when she was pregnant. As Shelley relates, “I was about eight months pregnant, and I was really scared about the idea of having a baby. I couldn’t imagine how my life was going to be, that it would change so drastically that I wasn’t even going to recognize myself anymore. I was terrified and I really had never seen that reflected in anything, not in a book or in a movie.” Shelley ultimately saw the film as a love letter to her baby daughter, Sophie. Her story is so real and relatable to so many women. Not every woman naturally sees herself as a mother. The prospect of motherhood is often scary and seems so utterly life-changing. But in the end, Shelly shows how Jenna finds herself, inspiration, and the greatest love and joy of her life through daughter, Lu Lu.

The film was difficult to watch, knowing the grim details of Shelley’s senseless murder in her New York office, just two month’s prior to the film’s successful debut at the Sundance Film Festival. It was heartbreaking to watch Shelley on screen as Jenna’s mousy and sweet, hilarious co-waitress Dawn. To think of the film as her final legacy, and last love letter to her 3-year old daughter, Sophie, is truly devastating.

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