Waitress

2007 romantic comedy

Rating: 7/20 (Jen: 13/20)

Plot: A pie-making genius/waitress finds out she's having a baby with a husband she is no longer in love with. So she decides to start sleeping with her ob-gyn. Cause she's a whore. A subplot involves another waitress who sleeps with her boss. She has two good excuses though--her husband is an invalid and she's also a whore. They celebrate their whorish ways by making pies!

This is thematically offensive (the main idea being that if you are unhappy with your marriage, you have the right to sleep with somebody better) and probably even more offensive in its predictability. Not one thing happens in a way that isn't completely expected. There wasn't a laugh to be had, and most of the time I wasn't even sure whether or not it was supposed to be a funny movie. I believe this soap opera is Jen's revenge for being forced to watch The Holy Mountain, but she claims that's not the case. Overhead shots of pies being made were beautiful and, for me at least, sexually arousing. Other than that, nothing at all to see here. And, it should be pointed out, feminists would bash this movie if it was called Waiter and featured males behaving in exactly the same way as the female characters did. I'm just sayin'.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are just not in touch with your inner gal. This movie made my top 10 list from last year because I thought it was charming, sweet, and I was involved with the lead character's issues of being trapped in a bad marriage and not knowing whether she wanted to be a mother. The amusing relationships with her doctor, co-workers ( and the goof that pursues one of them ), and the cute pie-making sequences made me smile, if not laugh out loud. As for being predictable; compared to many of the psychotic films that you choose to amuse yourself with, I suppose it may be. If her pies started talking to her and murdered her husband you may have given it a higher grade. I did find her resolution of her relationship with the doctor both suprising and appropriate. Most offensive, you have panned a movie featuring a folksy Andy Griffith. Shame on Shane. This should get at least a 15- and see "A Face in the Crowd", for God's sake.

Shane said...

There's nothing charming or sweet about adultery.

And although I can maybe understand a guy smiling while watching this (although it'd have to be a guy with an "inner gal" that is nearly ready to burst out of him and devour what's left of his broken carcass, leaving only a few bloody chunks of flesh on the walls and ceiling), I can't imagine ANYBODY laughing at anything at all in the film. You really laughed out loud? Was somebody tickling you while it was on?

Top ten list for last year? Did you see less than ten movies or something?

I found it nearly impossible to root for any of the characters. The waitress with glasses maybe, but the main character was a terrible person, and Cheryl Hines' character might have been even worse. For the most part, I liked the protagonist's husband more than I liked her.

I did like the pretty shots of pies, and Andy Griffith, although I never really bought his character, was possibly the most likable thing about the movie.