Review - Waitress (2007 - Dir. Adrienne Shelly)

It’s got Nathan Fillion in it. It can’t be all bad. 

Normally, romantic comedies make me want to violently remove my eyeballs with a melon spoon and syringe my ears with a rotary hand whisk. Amazingly, this one doesn’t. It’s probably because it hasn’t got one of your traditional big name romantic comedy leads. This results in it being far less irritating and more grounded in reality.

Keri Russell plays Jenna, a pie maker who is married to a cringe-worthy, violent control freak, Earl (Jeremy Sisto). When she discovers she is pregnant she visits the nervous new doctor, Dr Pomatter (Nathan Fillion). As you can probably guess, romantic scenes abound. Not many surprises there. The two leads make the film. Keri Russell is believably and understandably miserable for most of the film and the names she makes up for her pie concoctions always raise a smile. Nathan Fillion’s facial expressions are at his best just after a clinch with Keri Russell. Not much nose flaring though, sadly.

The supporting cast are all entertaining. Old Joe (Andy Griffith) is the owner of the pie shop and he’s a right miserable old goat. He also steals every scene he’s in. The rest of the staff in the pie shop all contribute to the tone of the film, all bringing their own love-life problems into the mix.

The plot moves along quickly without any dull moments. There are a smattering of funny lines throughout the film but nothing that makes you cry laughing. But if a grizzled gore boy like me can watch it and enjoy it, I would have thought anybody could. Sadly, the director/actress Adrienne Shelly was murdered before the release of the film, just as she was starting to hit her stride as a director.

6/10

evlkeith

If you like this you could also try:
Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Garden State, Serenity.