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Waitress is basically a film about pies. Keri Russell, whose most high-profile role to date came in Mission: Impossible III, is Jenna, the waitress of the title, and she's a gifted creator of pastry-related delicacies. She's also stuck in an unhappy marriage with a controlling oaf of a husband and finds out that she's pregnant. Needless to say, she's not happy, but upon meeting the town's new doctor (the ever-engaging Nathan Fillion) she starts to develop ideas about running away - with him. This leads to some tricky, ambiguous moral ground; Jenna's husband deserves to be punished but Fillion's Dr. Pomatter is a married man himself, and seems happy with his lot. It's never quite clear therefore why he falls for Jenna and is so keen to have an adulterous affair. The pair do undeniably possess great screen chemistry though, so they make an appealing couple.
When watching Waitress it's difficult to ignore the tragic real-world circumstances surrounding its journey to cinemas. Writer-director Adrienne Shelly was murdered in her New York office last November before she was able to assemble the film that she had by that time already shot. That knowledge adds an unavoidable twist of melancholy to the whole enterprise, but it's a creditable swansong. Shelly also acts in the film, playing the part of one of Jenna's colleagues at their small-town pie shop, enjoying an endearing subplot involving an initially love-hate romance with Eddie Jemison (one the lesser-known members of Ocean's Eleven), who has a tendency to blurt out terrible improvised love poems. Shelly's performance is self-deprecating and extremely likeable.
Like some of Jenna's culinary creations (which she tends to name after her current emotional situation, such as "Pregnant Miserable Self-Pitying Loser Pie"), Waitress sometimes begins to feel too sweet and indulgent. A couple of moments come off as overly staged, including a montage which Jenna smiles all the way through. The grittier moments balance out the sentimentality but also belong to a different, darker film, with Jenna's marital situation leading to some uncomfortable moments. Husband Jeremy Sisto is eminently detestable, but the character manages to be more than just a cardboard cutout; he evidently cares a lot for Jenna but can't control his possessiveness and jealousy. It's therefore a film that doesn't quite settle on a desired tone, at times aiming for whimsical comedy and at others emotional drama. It doesn't quite nail either.
The summary
Waitress is a satisfactory serving, but not, unlike its central character's concoctions, a mouth-watering treat.
