Waitress - B+

In theaters. Rated Pg-13, 104 minutes.

As I walked into this one and saw all the women and neutered men in the theater, I was dreading another bad movie choice. Fortunately, Waitress turned out to be a thoughtful and smart, if flawed, look at the complicated life of Jenna (Keri Russell). Directed by the now deceased Adrienne Shelly (she was murdered last fall in New York), it is obviously a 'chick flick' with goofy scenes like a 'sensual' pie making scene that had me squirming.

Jenna is a talented pie cook and creator that works at a local pie shop and is married to an insecure and boorish man that she doesn't love. Early on she finds out she's pregnant, which only serves to raise the walls in her prison of a life. She falls for her attractive and married doctor (again, this is a chick flick) and tries to survive her abusive and idiotic husband. There are several interesting side stories in the film, the best being the interaction of Jenna with Joe, the gruff owner of the diner (Andy Griffith, in a great performance). As can be expected, he is the voice of reason and has a heart of gold. Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Shelley portray Becky and Dawn, Jenna's co-workers, and each has a developed character with a marginally interesting story.

The director's own experiences with the birth of her daughter clearly influenced the excellent treatment of the birthing and post-birth scenes in which the previously emotionally calloused Jenna is transfixed on her new daughter and all other things are literally taken out of focus. It is a great touch that, admittedly, brings a tear to the eye for any (even this) parent because of its reminder of the elegiac nature of those moments.

Favorite line: Jenna asks her famously negative boss if he is happy. His response: "Happy enough".