Stubs - Waitress

Waitress (2007) starring: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Adrienne Shelly, Eddie Jemison, Jeremy Sisto, Andy Griffith. Directed by Adrienne Shelly. Screenplay by Adrienne Shelly. Produced by Michael Roiff. Run time: 104 minutes. Color. USA. Comedy.

Every holiday seems to have related films, take Groundhog Day, or even a genre of films, Christmas with the holiday film. But some holidays don’t have films that come to mind. For Pi(e) Day, can we recommend Waitress directed by Adrienne Shelly?

Jenna Hunterson (Keri Russell) discovers that she’s pregnant surrounded
 by Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly).

The film opens in the women’s restroom at Joe’s Pie Diner, when waitress Jenna Hunterson (Keri Russell) discovers that she’s pregnant. With her are her friends and co-workers, Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly). Jenna is not happy about the pregnancy, as she feels trapped in an unhappy marriage to abusive Earl Hunterson (Jeremy Sisto).

Jenna only wants to be able to make pies, a talent she learned from her mother. The dream is to have her own pie café someday. Working at Joe’s gives her an opportunity to not only bake pies, but to also invent new ones, such as “Bad Baby Pie”, her invention after learning of the pregnancy. Jenna had hoped to escape Earl by winning a pie contest in a nearby town and collecting its $25,000 grand prize. She also hides money from Earl, hoping to help her escape. But now all hope seems lost.

Only Jenna gets along well with Joe (Andy Griffith), the owner of the pie cafe.

Even though the diner is run by Cal (Lew Temple), it is owned by Joe (Andy Griffith), an elderly man who owns several businesses in the area. The other waitresses want Jenna to wait on him, as he scares them. Joe seems to take a liking to Jenna, and after giving her strict instructions on what to bring him and in what order, insists on reading her his horoscope out of the paper.

Despite not wanting the baby, Jenna does the right things to take care of it (the sex is not known right away, even though Dawn thinks it’s a girl). She goes to see her life-long doctor, Dr. Lily Mueller (Sarah Hunley), but finds out that she’s semi-retired and that there is a new obstetrician, Jim Pomatter (Nathan Fillion). He has moved from Connecticut to accommodate his wife, also a doctor, who is completing her residency at the local hospital. Jenna’s first encounter with Dr. Pomatter is odd to say the least.

After having sex with Dr. Pomatter, Jenna can't help but smile.

However, when she calls about spotting, Dr. Pomatter not only opens the clinic several hours early to accommodate her but, then informs her that it was nothing unusual. They discover that they are mutually attracted to one another and her visits turn into an affair. Jenna, for the first time in a long while, is truly happy.

Meanwhile, Becky and Dawn gift Jenna with a baby book that also includes a place to write the first letter to her baby. Not only does Jenna write the letter, but she seems to keep a journal going forward, capturing her inner thoughts and plans.

Jenna makes an attempt to escape Earl, only to be caught by him before the bus arrives. In an effort to stop his abusive behavior, Jenna confesses to her pregnancy. Upon learning she is pregnant, Earl demands Jenna promise never to love the baby more than him and to always put him first.

Jenna informs Cal of her pregnancy, though he tells her he already knew. But rather than firing or replacing her, as long as she can carry a tray, she has a job.

Jenna: Well, Cal, it seems that I'm almost five months pregnant.

Cal: Yeah? And?

Jenna: And... I thought I should tell you.

Cal: Heck, I already knew that.

Jenna: You did?

Cal: Yeah. Heck, I thought everyone knew.

Jenna: Well who told you?

Cal: Nobody needed to tell me. I mean look at you. What, you think I thought you went and let yourself get fat? Truth is, as long as you can carry a tray and fill a pie tin I don't care if you give birth while doing it. Maybe I'm not such a bad guy after all?

Jenna: Maybe you're not such a bad guy after all.

Cal: Well get out there Jenna, get back to work, we've got customers!

Dawn goes on what she calls a five-minute date, but the man she’s supposed to meet instead sends Ogie Anhorn (Eddie Jemison). While Dawn can’t stand him, Ogie is madly in love with her.

Dawn: You gotta help me.

Jenna: What is going on?

Dawn: That guy, his name is Ogie, short for "Oklahoma". I was supposed to meet some guy named Pete last night, instead he sent Ogie. It was the worst five minutes of my life.

Jenna:: How can a five minute blind date be that bad?

Dawn: He took me through the entire medical and psychiatric history of his family.

Jenna: Oh, no.

Dawn: And he told me he wants to marry me.

Jenna: Oh, no!

Dawn: Marry me! And he's not giving up, not ever giving up. First guy that pays any attention to me in years and he turns out to be the mad, stalking elf.

A tax auditor, given to spontaneous poetry, Ogie won’t take no for an answer and wears down Dawn, and when he asks her to marry him, she accepts.

Meanwhile, Jenna discovers a secret Becky has been keeping from the other two. Married to a senile older man, Becky has been fooling around with Cal, also married, on the side. Jenna happens to walk in while they’re cuddling in the kitchen. While she knows it’s wrong, the affair is exciting to Becky and gives her something to look forward to everyday.

Becky: Good, cause this is my lil' adventure.

Jenna: Your little adventure?

Becky: Yeah, I'm having me a lil' adventure after many years of lots of nothin'.

Jenna: You love him?

Becky: Cal? I don't know. But I love it. I love having someone to look pretty for. I love waking up and having something to look forward to. Something fun and sneaky and sexy.

Jenna: He love you?

Becky: He kinda likes me, kinda hates me. It's fun.

Jenna: Doesn't sound very fun.

Becky: He makes me forget about my invalid husband. My loneliness. The dreadful misplacement of my bosoms.

At Dawn’s wedding, which is held at Joe’s, the merriment is interrupted by Earl, who demands that Jenna leave with him immediately. Joe sees what Jenna has meant about her husband.

Jenna's husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto) is an abusive man who ruins her plans.

When they get home. Earl confronts Jenna about the money he’s found stashed around the house. Rather than tell him of her plot to leave him, she says that the money is for the baby, so they can buy a crib. Earl cries relieved that he isn’t losing the one person who belongs to him. Excited about the money, he decides to spend what’s leftover on a video camera for himself.

Jenna is ready to run away with Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion), but her water breaks.

Distraught, the next time she sees to Dr. Pomatter, they fantasize about running away together, only stopped when Jenna's water breaks.

At the hospital, Jenna is visited by Joe, who is also a patient. He’s to undergo surgery later that afternoon. He hands her an envelope with instructions not to open it until after the baby is born, but he refuses to hug her.

When Jenna wakes from a nap, she’s surrounded by residents and Dr. Pomatter. One of the residents is Dr. Pomatter's wife, Dr. Francine Pomatter (Darby Stanchfield), who is affectionate with her husband but also seems to take a liking to Jenna. Before he leaves, Jenna tells Dr. Pomatter to administer as many drugs as legally possible during the birth.

Jenna gives birth to a baby girl. At first she doesn’t want to see her, but when she holds her newborn for the first time, Jenna's ambivalence melts into a full-blown love at first sight. She names the baby girl Lulu.

Earl is disappointed that it is a girl and reminds Jenna of her coerced promise not to love the baby more than she does him. Instead, Jenna says she has not loved him in years, will no longer put up with his abuse, and wants a divorce.

Earl: Hey. You remember what I said - don't you go lovin' that baby too much.

Jenna: I don't love you, Earl. I haven't loved you for years. I want a divorce.

Earl: [laughs] Well, that's not a funny joke. You got this new baby here, you shouldn't be making jokes like that...

Jenna: I want you the hell out of my life. You are never to touch me, ever again. I am done with you. If you ever come within six yards of me, I will flatten your sorry ass and I'll enjoy doin' it.

Enraged, Earl attempts to assault Jenna, but is escorted out of the hospital by Dr. Pomatter and security staff.

Later, Jenna is awakened by Becky and Dawn. Earl is refusing to pay her medical bills, so the hospital is kicking her out. With no place to go, Dawn offers to let her and the baby stay with her and Ogie until she gets back on her feet.

Becky and Dawn also inform her that following his surgery, Joe is in a coma and not expected to survive. Jenna then remembers Joe's envelope. In it, she finds a card with a sketch he drew of her, inscribed "To my only friend, start fresh", along with a check for $270,450, though the amount is hidden.

While leaving the hospital, Dr. Pomatter asks to talk to her in private and wheels her away from her friends. Jenna tells him that she’s ending their relationship now. One of the reasons is the enormous trust she sensed from his wife and rather than making everyone else miserable, she thinks its best to end it now. She then hands him a chocolate Moon Pie and asks her friends to wheel her out.

Later, Jenna, with Lulu in a snuggy, wins the pie contest and then turns the diner into a new restaurant named "Lulu's Pies.” The films ends with Jenna and Lulu walking home happily after a day at the pie diner.

 

Adrienne Shelly, writer, director and actrress in Waitress.

The film is a delight and as tasty as the pies Jenna bakes. To me, this shows Adrienne Shelly’s talent as a filmmaker and her work reminds me, and I mean this as a great compliment, of the better work of Woody Allen, who also used to write, direct and star in his movies. Shelly was another such triple-threat. With her red hair and glasses, she even sort of looks like a pretty female version of him. She even co-wrote a very touching song "Baby Don't You Cry", which the mother sings to her daughter. Sadly, Shelly was murdered in an attempted robbery even before this film was released. Killed on November 1, 2006, this film was not released until May 2, 2007.

Shelly seems to capture a real feel for small town America, or at least what we hope small town America would be like. I don’t know the origins of the pie recipes, but they all sound interesting and makes one wish there were a pie diner in the neighborhood. What I would have expected as a tie-in to the film would have been a recipe book, rather than a musical re-interpretation.

Not only is the writing great, so is the acting, as everyone seems perfectly cast in their roles from Keri Russell as Jenna, Nathan Fillion as Dr. Pomatter, and Jeremy Sisto as Earl. The characters Shelly created are all complex ones and the actors are allowed to show a range of emotions throughout. Cheryl Hines captures a Florence Jean Castleberry vibe from Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore while still making the role her own.

But the film’s supporting cast is also excellent. Andy Griffith as Joe, gives a performance that seems 180 degrees from the character he had developed in his long-running TV series. Griffith has always been able to show range, besides playing good-natured hicks. As an example, his performance in A Face in the Crowd (1957) is downright disturbing.

And there is Eddie Jemison’s turn as Ogie. This is a quirky character whose persistence and love for Dawn makes him, in turn, lovable as well.

I can’t say enough about how good this film is and how well it holds up after multiple viewings over a number of years. This could easily be your annual Pi(e) Day film, but it would be good for any day of the year.