Waitressis an affecting comedy-drama about lived-in lives, writes Michael Dwyer
Coincidentally opening here within a fortnight of each other this month, Waitressand Knocked Upare thoroughly entertaining American romantic comedies, each of which charts the complicated consequences for a young woman when she learns she is pregnant for the first time. Alcohol is a factor in both of these unplanned births.
The female protagonist of Knocked Upis out on a drunken celebratory night when she becomes pregnant by a slacker she never met before and is her polar opposite. And Jenna, played by Keri Russell in Waitress, remarks: "When I drink, I do stupid things, like having sex with my husband." That's understandable, given that he (Jeremy Sisto) is a self-absorbed, hot-tempered and possessive boor whose immaturity is at the root of his insecurities.
Why Jenna married him in the first place is never explained, but she gets through each day on the camaraderie she shares with her colleagues at a small-town southern diner: the older, pragmatic Becky (Cheryl Hines), and the quiet, nervy Dawn (Adrienne Shelly) who is seeking a prospective spouse.
Jenna's other satisfaction in life is in demonstrating her imaginative flair for devising a different pie for the diner's daily special. She coins private names for each of her creations, such as "I Hate My Husband Pie" (bittersweet chocolate drowned in caramel) and "Baby Screaming Its Head Off in the Middle of the Night and Ruining My Life Pie" (pecans and nutmeg over cheesecake).
The opening of Waitress aptly recalls the opening credits sequence of Masterchef, the BBC cookery competition programme, as various lip-smacking pies are prepared. The perky mood of the establishing scenes turns sour with the arrival of Jenna's domineering husband. It's hardly surprising when she finds herself drawn to the town's attractive new gynaecologist (Nathan Fillion), who also happens to be married to somebody else.
Unselfishly casting herself as the geeky Dawn, whose latest boyfriend is described as "a stalking elf", the late writer- director Shelly gave most of the best lines to her co-stars in this spirited and charming comedy. Russell, in particular, is radiant as the endearing, warm-hearted Jenna, seizing upon her most substantial cinema role since she graduated from the TV series Felicity. Hines, from Curb Your Enthusiasm, is amusingly feisty as co-worker Becky, and veteran Andy Griffith is a delight as the diner's owner, a man applying long experience to his engaging line in homespun philosophising.
Shelly started out as an actress in the late 1980s, revealing a distinctive screen presence in Hal Hartley's eye-catching early films, The Unbelievable Truthand Trust. She had directed a couple of features before Waitress, which she wrote when she was in the later stages of pregnancy with her first and only child.
Waitresshad just been accepted for the 2007 Sundance festival when Shelly became the victim of a mindless murder in Manhattan last November. The poignancy of the movie's posthumous release is heightened in the closing scenes, where Jenna's offspring is played by Shelly's daughter, who was 22 months old at the time and whose birth was the inspiration for this cherishable movie.
