Waitress (2007)

Cliche and dated
Every man is a controlling jerk (except the one necessary for the cliched hetero happy ending.) The acting and directing are sub-par and forgettable even for an indie movie that already seems dated by 15 years. What a waste of time.

Watching the movie through a different prism.
I believe the excellence of Waitress stands on its own, but my desire to like it was no doubt heightened by the post-production tragedy of the murder of writer/director Adrienne Shelly. I think co-star Cheryl Hines says it best in the featurette: Shelly's tragic and senseless death compels you to watch the movie through a different prism.

I was surprised that Keri Russell wasn't nominated for any best actress awards. I thought she was outstanding. She's in every scene. Her performance carries the movie. It's really a series of interactions between she and husband Earl (a wonderfully unlikable Jeremy Sisto), she and customer/owner Old Joe (a dyspeptic Andy Griffith) and she and physician/suitor Dr. Pomatter. In particular, the relationship between Russell's Jenna and Nathan Fillion's Pomatter is very well-played, both by the actors themselves and from Shelly's strong writing and direction. She will be missed.

Awful film
Truly one of the most overhyped and overrated films of my 42-year lifetime. I am actually not religious at all, and I'm not a prude by any means--but I couldn't believe the cynicism of this film. It's probably possible to cheat on your spouse and have the affair be a romantic connection with a person that means something. I think that is extremely rare. It certainly wasn't the situation here, where the "protagonist" hesitantly engaged in an affair with her obgyn. Creepy. The fantasy that "having a child makes everything worthwhile and your life worth living" is a simplistic, and narcissistic, fiction that is downright dangerous in our overpopulated world. I'm sure it is extremely popular with people of the economic strata at which this film is apparently aimed at.

Before you discount this review as a product of my (male) gender, my wife also *hated* this movie. The pie recipe "metaphors" were trite, and the pacing of the movie was incredibly boring. This is the first or maybe second review I've ever written on Amazon. The movie is that bad. It was no accident this was a straight-to-video release. I thought Andy Griffith did a good job.