Film Review
Tom Murphy
RedwoodAge.com
Anyone who has worked in a small restaurant knows that the crappy wages and modest tips are the least rewarding parts of the job.
The best parts are the lessons in life that come from frustrated fry cooks and smart-assed waitresses, who generally are only to happy to share what they've done right or wrong with the same eagerness that they plop down the daily special and a side of fries.
So it is at Joe's Pie Diner, a peculiar little southern eatery along the highway of life where Adrienne Shelly's "Waitress" is staged. Jenna (Keri Russell) is the embodiment of perky and so eager to please that you'd never guess she has a louse for a husband (Jeremy Sisto). So she tells you all about it, and how she'd like to leave him, and how she can't afford to, and so on.
The other waitresses (Shelly and Cheryl Hines) call her a "pie genius" for her power over pastry, but can't offer much more than sympathy as they search for the recipe for love in their own lives.
Jenna turns to her doctor (Nathan Fillion), who offers great sex and compassion, but can't solve her marital problems because he's married himself. At least he shows her she deserves better than her hopelessly insecure husband, whose violent nature and implied threats trap her in a life she can't enjoy and can't escape.
Enter Joe (Andy Griffith) whose grumpy nature hides a heart of gold. In a finely turned grandfatherly role, his good will and better advice amount to the best tip Jenna will ever get.
The story's theme isn't original and neither is the setting (it would make a fine double-bill with "Mystic Pizza"), but the story is well told and the performances are near perfect. Russell is irresistible in the role of a sweet small town girl who deserves better. She has audiences rooting for her, hoping she finds her footing before time runs out.
The film's lesson was tragically underscored by Shelly's real-life murder. The actress-writer-director was killed by a construction worker in New York City just after completing this, her third and by far best film.
Her legacy is a movie that, like a cool slice of strawberry rhubarb on hot summer day, leaves you wanting more. But see "Waitress" while you can. There'll be no second helpings of this tasty treat.
