Thursday, April 10, 2008

Waitress


2007 film by Adrienne Shelly that tells a pretty typical story of a witty, beautiful southern waitress who wants so bad to escape her boring life and wretched husband but whose prospects for doing so become even slimmer after she finds out she's pregnant. We've all seen this before whether it's in dramas like The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio or The Good Girl or countless comedies like Sweet Home Alabama. Take one part southern girl that's bizarrely out of place in her nowhere home town b/c she's movie star beautiful and (usually) very talented and witty, mix this with one part deadbeat husband and/or dad and mix finally with a path of escape, usually in the form of an attractive male outsider. Usually the outsider is from New York, but here he's from Connecticut, how original. Sometimes you can throw in an alternative path to escape like the prize contests in the above mentioned movie The Prize Winner of...., or, as here, pie contests. If it sounds like I hated this movie, I didn't, I actually enjoyed it. My point is that the story is old and tired and I wish that would've been better, but it wasn't so cliche as to ruin the movie, and it wasn't successful in doing so b/c of the strength of the performances. Keri Russel and Andy Griffith are so great in this movie and truly carry it. That's right, you heard me, Felicity and Matlock were so fantastic that they made a tired cliche of a movie worth watching. While I never thougth I'd say that, it's true. Griffith plays the horny, gossip hog diner owner and is pitch perfect. Russel plays the titular waitress and really embodies this girl. Whatever those two were selling, I was buying. If it weren't for them, this movie wouldn't be worth your time, but they're there and it is worth a watch. It's not great, but it's fun, uplifting and at times will surely have you laughing and enjoying yourself.

S'good

P.s. The director, Shelly, did everything for this movie, she wrote it, produced it, directed it and even plays one of the leads (Dawn). She also was murdered before the movie was fully done. This was supposed to be a mainstream romantic comedy and feels like one. She was horribly murdered right when they were finishing though and no one knew what to do, so completion took a bit and distributors were wary. Thus, you have a mainstream movie that didn't get wide release. Anywho, weird story, you should look it up if you're curious.