There is something painfully dark and disturbing about this movie - a film about a waitress (duh) that becomes pregnant by her abusive husband and begins an affair with her gynecologist - that bothered me from the time I stopped watching it. It wasn't the husband, who was so cartoonishly evil that he removed any emotional punch of the abuse storyline as he played less like an actual person than a method actor in the midst of a very poor production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Nor was it the tired trope of women cheating for reasons that humanizes and makes us understand them while men do it because . . . well, men cheat. (The lead character's husband is abusive and selfish in bed - of course - and her coworker's affair is justified by her husband being in a vegetative state and sleeping in a separate room. Both of the men they have affairs with have blameless, wonderful wives they are apparently happily married to.) Nor even the implication that the only good thing a man can do is die as the only major male character not abjectly terrible serves as a deus ex machina who manages to write our saintly heroine an enormous check before having the courtesy to kick the bucket and not be seen again.No, actually, those tropes don't bother me because I could as easily point to a zillion zany guy comedies where women are shrewish, joyless nags or soulless objects of desire who appear long enough to showcase either their fronts or rears and then return to the factory floor to be pulled for the next showcase. It would by hypocritical to find my moral outrage for that.What is uniquely ugly about this film is a device wherein a woman appears in several scenes with her unruly, awful, out-of-control 6-year-old boy - who spends every second of screen time ruthlessly tormenting his poor mother. These are meant to show what Waitress fears about childbirth - and it is apparently having a boy. The implication seems to be strongly that had she not gotten her 'happy' ending of having a girl in the film's climax, she would have simply remained miserable.It is a gross hatred of boys, an equivalent I couldn't imagine in another film. Men are not awful, this film says, because of a patriarchal society that indoctrinates them. It is not the actions of her awful husband or the philandering doctor that ruin a woman's life, but the mere act of being born with a penis. I think the 'pro-life' message so many Christian conservatives are finding in this film would not exist if they did not imply early and often her child would be a girl. I wonder if the writer/director of this film was going through a rough spot in her marriage when writing this? Working out feelings about her father? I read before her tragic death she had a daughter . . . and thank god for that, because I would worry even more about the implications if she'd actually had a son. (I hope, if she did, this aspect would've changed.)Ultimately this disgusting aspect drags a mediocre film with a couple of lights to a level that makes it, well, kind of awful.

The story is simple. A waitress has an abusive husband and she get's pregnant and goes to the local doctor for consultation and she falls in love with him and between them begins a love romance.I'm truly amazed by the high rating. I don't say it's a bad movie just that is simple and nothing too fancy about it. Just the drama of an ordinary American woman and her daily routines at work and at home. Also we are not told why her husband has this vile behavior for his wife, in fact what she ever do to him that deserves this treatment? There a many movies with mystery in witch a review is hard to write because after you watched you still don't get it, even if you watch more then once but here is not the case so I still think is a too appreciate film for it's trite content. If you are bored in one afternoon and you are in the mood to watch a story life, this is a good pick, but that's all.

I have a friend that loves odd little independent flicks. We have some weekends where we go out for a movie and either she or I get to pick. Because she picks movies that I never hear of, she literally drags me kicking and screaming to the theater and I always think I will hate it--Problem is that she is never wrong.... I found Waitresss as entertaining as a fine five course meal.The plot is very simple. Meet Jenna (Keri Russell) a pretty but quirky young woman who works as a waitress in a diner that specializes in home baked pies located in some sleepy Southern town. Jenna's only passion in life is concocting delicious pies with odd ingredients off the top of her head which she has special names for them depending on her mood or what is happening in her life. However, she feels trapped in a loveless marriage with her overbearing caveman husband, Earl (Jeremy Sisto) who treats her more like his possession than a wife. Her life changes drastically when she gets accidentally pregnant by her husband whom she plots to leave one day and win a contest to become a pie baking champion. Jenna feels hopeless for her life but again fate lends a hand when she meets and has a affair with the handsome new doctor, Dr Pometter (Nathan Fullion) Now Jenna must face some choices and challenges about her life.The other characters are just as quirky. Jenna's two co-workers Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn played by the talented director herself, Adrianne Shelly are Jenna's best friends and probably considered family. The owner of the diner,rich Old Joe, played by Andy Griffith is a cranky curmudgeon with a somewhat lovable air about him. I always thought that the reason Jenna's character got along so well with Old Joe because both characters seem to look at life with a somewhat pessimistic attitude.I think the film explores the choices that people make in life--sometimes bad or morally corrupt. Nobody is condemned or ridiculed but often shown how they arrive at their chosen destination. And as we go thru life running "like chickens with their heads cut off" we may eventually arrive to a conclusion that we made the wrong choice. If so, the only right thing to do is "make a clean break and start over" I would also advise that the film has been criticized as NOT male friendly. A lot of people feel that the male characters are blamed for all the bad things in life--I disagree and you will have to make the choice after seeing it. I think that each character made their own situations and bad choices.Also a warning, that this film will make you HUNGRY! Various pie recipes are shown and by the end of the film, you'll probably be looking for desert. It also has made me somewhat of a pie maker myself! It is a tragedy that such a talent like Adrianne Shelly was taken away from us before her time. I believe that had she lived, she would be seeing Academy Award.

This movie is like a beautiful painting which unfolds its colors gradually. You are not eager to watch where its going but just enjoy it and flow with it. After a point you feel that these characters are so real and as if things are actually happening to them. Of course movie does have its slow moments and very sad moments when you sympathize with the protagonist and wait for something good to happen, but there are so many funny and mad incidents that even anti-drama audience will love it.I am sure all women will definitely love it. Best to be watched on a afternoon, alone.