Rent Waitress (2007)

Half baked. - Waitress review by CP Customer

Waitress has all the ingredients to make a decent movie, but it all comes off as predictable and a bit flat. With the exception of the always loveable Andy Griffith and a fairly decent performance by Keri Russell the cast is universally poor. Adrienne Shelly's story often shows glimpses of promise though her poor direction results in comedic moments coming off as flat and dramatic moments as dull. In the hands of a more experienced and imaginative director this could have been an edgy romantic comedy, but in reality it's little more than a very average medium budget daytime TV movie.

Great Sustenance - Waitress review by CH

With a marriage which not only soon turned sour but is complicated by news of pregnancy, Keri Russell finds sanctuary in a waitressing job in an irascibly-managed Southern diner which allows her to create sweet puddings of her own devising. With parallel plots supplied by the amatory aspirations of two other waitresses and the lifetime's disappointments of a regular customer, here is something which moves briskly between the tragic and the feel-good. There are snappy and snappish lines throughout as these nine months play out and bring with them the longer time-frame of a brief epilogue. Unhealthy as those pies might be for the heart here is a film which warms it without forgetting that the brain also has to be fed.

The only shame is that the writer/director, who also plays one of the other waitresses, was murdered before this splendid film's release.