Movie Review: Waitress

Switching channels after seeing Pakistan beat South Africa (not chokers anymore), I came to Star Movies, which was playing Waitress. The cute actress (since identified as Keri Russell by IMDB) caught my eye. She was dressed in a waitress' garb and looking oh-so-sad like someone who's just a few $ away from being really poor, and isn't in a very happy state vis-a-vis their life - crappy job, relationship, etc.

So it was. The waitress is actually stuck in a loveless marriage, with a husband who doesn't care for her much, in a small town. There is one bright spot in her life though - pies. (Not the American Pie kind). She makes lovely pies, most of which she thinks up to represent some bits of her emotional state.

Then we see some of the best representations of humdrum life in a movie - her regular days at work, followed by ending the night with a self-absorbed and somewhat uncaring husband. The regular ills of a workplace - her boss who doesn't seem to be able to utter kind words besides "Get out of the kitchen" "There are customers waiting" and such, her colleagues who form a clique with her, and both of whom share a humdrum life as well.

Her customers, some idiosyncratic, some loving, some who really love her pies and her as well. There isnt too much outdoor shoots, not much snazzy outfits - not too much at all. Its subtle - if any product wanted to be marketed as subtle, this would be the movie to do it.

I won't go into the rest of the story as I'd probably fawn too much, but here's something for subtlety - the husband finds spare cash hidden all around the house, and he asks her why (after wrecking a chair at the diner she works in) and she tells him its for the baby - even as he's a bit taken aback, he gets up embraces her and says "For the baby!". (Pictures work better)

If this review still hasn't convinced you, maybe I havent been as subtle and as real as the movie. Just go watch it. Its a masterpiece. Sadly, the writer-director Adrienne Shelly is no more, killed soon after she completed Waitress by a burglar she caught in the act.