Waitress: DVD Review (2007)

Home cookin' served with a side of bitters.

Keri Russell is Jenna, a gifted pie maker and waitress in a small Southern town whose pies match her moods.

Since she is stuck in a bad marriage with Earl (Jeremy Sisto) and recently learned that she's pregnant with his child, Jenna, who names her pies, makes such classics as "I Hate My Husband Pie," "Baby Screaming Its Head Off in the Middle of the Night and Ruining My Life Pie," "Pregnant Miserable Self-Pitying Loser Pie" and "Earl Murders Me Because I'm Having an Affair Pie," which runs blood-red with the syrup of mashed raspberries.

About that last pie. Upon going to her gynecologist to address the unwanted situation of her "damn baby," as she calls it, Jenna finds that her doctor is phasing into retirement and that a new doctor, the studly Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion, "Serenity"), has taken over the practice.

The relationship that steams between them is heated with reckless, comic abandon, with Jenna's co-workers, Dawn (the film's murdered writer-director Adrienne Shelly) and Becky (Cheryl Hines), offering raised eyebrows and halting advice as they freely tamper with their own lives.

Russell is very good here, easily winning audiences over in a tricky role that could have been abrasive if the actress didn't find unexpected ways to make her character so appealing. Her relationship with Andy Griffith's grumbling Old Joe, who owns the diner where Jenna works, is shaded with nuance.

Watching this fine romantic comedy, it's clear that writer-director-co-star Shelly's fortunes in Hollywood would have changed after the movie, which underscores just how ridiculously tragic her death really is.

Rated PG-13. Grade: A-

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