"Waitress" is a winner...
One of my favorite things to do when in Palm Springs is to take in an afternoon movie at the Camelot, an arthouse theater where you can sip on wine while watching a film and escape from the scorching afternoon sun. On Saturday, I took in "Waitress" starring Keri Russell, a movie that is one of the sleeper hits of the summer. It just quietly, week after week, hovers around the bottom of the top 10.
My friend Sue and I have been planning to see it soon but I jumped the gun. Sorry Sue! "Waitress" initially got my attention because of the murder of writer-director and co-star Adrienne Shelly who was killed a month before this wonderful film made a triumphant debut at Sundance.
What a gem she left behind. Keri Russell leaves "Felicity" behind for good with her wonderous performance as Jenna, a diner waitress who is something of a pie genius who names her creations after the tumultuous events and emotions of life. An example: "I Don't Want Earl's Baby" Pie--a quiche of egg and cheese with a smoked ham center.
The close-knit relationships she has with the diner's two other waitresses (portrayed by Charyl Hines and Shelley) help get her through the hell that is her life with her annoying, needy, controlling and abusive husband (Jeremy Sisto, even creepier than he was in "Six Feet Under.").
This movie has so many beautiful touches and while Russell is the main reason to see it (she is in every scene, after all, and she has never been better), it was awfully nice to have Andy Griffith share so many scenes with her and to have a good role on the big-screen after all these years.
I loved the voiceovers, where Jenna is reading aloud letters she is writing to her unborn baby. One is written after the handsome, married, doctor who becomes her lover tenderly comforts her when the weight of her problems (she does not have any money to flee her husband) has her in hopeless dispair: "I hope someone holds you for twenty minutes straight and doesn't want anything else from you, doesn't want you to lift your head up, they just like hold you and let you cry."
This movie is so special and wonderful. You will laugh, you will root for Jenna, and you will most certainly be hungry for a big slab of pie as you walk out of the theater...I guarantee it!
Greg Hernandez has covered the entertainment industry for the Daily
News since 2001. He's considered a bit odd by some for his obsession
with box office numbers, has been known to camp out near the kitchen
at premieres for first crack at the hors d'oeurves, and Greg's never
seen a red carpet he didn't want to stroll down.