"Waitress" (2007) - Movie Review

The defining moment of the movie lies some where in the middle of it. That happens when Jenna (Keri Russell) asks his always complaining boss Cal (Lew Temple), “Are you happy Cal?” and the reply of his. While in any other movie it would have been the sudden refreshing moment for the central character whose life is miserable and intertwined in life full of complications and mistakes. That does not happen here. In fact there are various such moments in the movie which might have been those shaking up the character to mould her life. The reason for this movie differing and good is due to that. It stayed true to the character.

Every one knows that Jenna is going to give a punching statement to her controlling and annoyingly irritating husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto) at some point of time in the movie. So it is a sure thing to happen and there are lot other things which can be guessed. The thing this movie giving those surpasses the element of surprise is by strategically placing them. Jenna is genius in the making of pies. The pies are expressed as her emotions at that moment. She “invents” those as she says on a daily basis. So eventually all those emotions are sad, depressing and hateful. Surprisingly it nourishes her pies to a decree of perfection. The movie is a run of the mill story. Extremely differentiated psychotic husband pushes her wife to an affair. She convolutes herself in to the hands of guilt and adding to it is the financial pressure. Interestingly the affair is with Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion) who is attending her for pregnancy.

The film is very entertaining and still artfully appealing due to the presence of some interesting characters. The continuously talking and picky old aged owner of the Joe’s Pies, Joe (Andy Griffith). Jenna’s adventurous over conscious about her appearance friend Becky (Cheryl Hines). A totally out of confidence waitress Dawn (Adrienne Shelly, the late director of the movie) who wants a life of being a wife and a mother. Then the clumsy and nice Dr. Pomatter. And the bitter spice for the recipe of this film, Earl. The film does not over use them and ruin the moments of Jenna. They facilitate the advance of screenplay underplaying their characters. When all this is happening, Jenna played Keri Russell picks up those nice touches of them to make it an interesting dining experience for the audience.

Coming to the core of the story is the relationship problems and of all dealing it by a woman. A woman who has become so financially dependent and also fearing over her husband. She is totally weak and defeated. Her happiness is gone and rests in the making of her pies. She acts on her instincts outside the yard circle of her husband. She expresses her passion so violently and in an impulsive manner. She is caught up in between the betrayal and suffering. She passes the day by expecting to meet her lover while wipe those by telling herself that her husband deserves this. And the movie cleverly justifies it in a way so smooth and in clandestine way. Earl is a person any one cannot survive around. For him Jenna is his Barbie Doll. He is psychotic and jealous over the doll. He denies the emotional outlet for her. This suppression and insensitive behaviour is taken as a justification for Jenna’s affair. But it does not answer the same for Dr. Pomatter’s affair with Jenna. And they use the same to stop it in the end. Nicely done.

In the end of course everything resolves as it supposed to. Happy and convincing. Every one deserves what they are getting. And we feel satisfied. It is an easy feeling for any moviegoer for a film like this. But here it is earned well enough. It does not pull the cheap stunts. While they use the rude behaviour of Earl for Jenna’s affair, they do not use the routine of him having an affair and call it even. The only thing which is haunting is the sudden change of Jenna once her baby is born. I guess women understand it well than men. It is a life changing experience which would reveal the true colours of life. It is haunting for me because I am still a young man. And they say that it takes years of experience to understand it for men, through the character of Joe.