Waitress - Preview & US reaction
Preview by Jack Foley
WAITRESS is a sweet, sassy and delicious slice of life tale that’s tinged with sadness.
It was an audience favourite at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and drew mostly rave reviews from US critics but it marks the final film from writer-director Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered while completing it.
The film is designed as a tribute to the power of friendship, motherhood and the willingness to take a chance.
It’s the story of a small town woman who transforms her hopeless life into a hilarious and unexpected love story. Keri Russell (Mission Impossible 3) leads a dynamic cast as a diner waitress stuck in a lousy marriage whose only solace is baking out-of-this-world pies.
When the awkwardly charming new OB-GYN, Dr Pomatter (Nathan Fillion), comes to town, she’s inspired to mix-master her life into something far more satisfying.
Critics have widely predicted that Waitress will surely do for pie making what Sideways did for Pinot Noir!
Among the positive reviews was Variety, which stated: “This tale of a pregnant small-town woman caught between a bad marriage and a risky affair is mostly as funny and charming as intended.”
The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, opined: “If Waitress was one of Jenna’s pies, it would be a sky-high lemon meringue – light, airy, not too sweet, with a tart, satisfying filling.”
Time Magazine wrote: “There’s something spunky about those pies and there’s something spunky about Waitress in general.”
And the Chicago Sun-Times concluded: “We can only take comfort in the little slice of heaven she [Adrienne Shelly] left behind.”
The concluding overview goes to the New York Times, however, which summed it up perfectly by stating: “With Waitress, Adrienne Shelly tamed and shaped realism, finding a perfect, difficult-to-achieve balance of enchantment and plausibility.”
Waitress opens in UK cinemas on August 10. b>Watch the trailer