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Review

Putting a new spin on the old story of a small town girl trying to make it big, writer/director Adrienne Shelly serves a delicious slice of comedy in this film about hope and desire. All Jenna wanted was a simple life. In order to free her mind from the trauma of her abusive husband, Earl (the talented Jeremy Sisto), she spends her days inventing new pies, dreaming of escaping to a better life. Every day she saves a little money from her tips, planning to take a bus far away from the small Southern town in which she resides. That is until Earl gets her drunk one night, and she falls off the celibacy wagon and finds herself pregnant. Unsure of what to do, she turns to Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion), a handsome gynecologist, for advice about what to do while trying to keep the baby a secret from the controlling Earl. But when a romance blossoms between her and the married Dr. Pomatter, Jenna’s life begins to spiral out of control. The recently deceased Shelly, who was tragically murdered in her apartment just after the film’s shooting finished, is best known for having graced the independent cinema scene with her acting talent for nearly twenty years. With Waitress, she has created a perfect finale to her career. The film is as visually stunning as it is well-written, and it imbues the characters with a luminous glow, magical to the eye, while cutting through the cookie-cutter charm of the small town with sharp wit and sophistication. Full of knockout performances that include Shelly herself, Cheryl Hines as Jenna’s endearingly gabby coworkers and Andy Griffith, who has just become more talented with age, the film is sweet, heartfelt, intelligent and above all, fun.

 -- Michael Lerman