Waitress

“Stories about poor women struggling to survive often make use of a rugged vérité aesthetic, but director Adrienne Shelly boldly defies convention with her radiant and gorgeously stylized feature film, WAITRESS.

“Jenna (Keri Russell) is a poor southern woman stuck in a bad marriage to her jealous jerk of a husband, Earl (Jeremy Sisto). Jenna works at Joe's Pie Diner, where every day she creates amazing pies that she titles after whatever's going on in her life. One day, she discovers she is pregnant and makes "I Don't Want Earl's Baby" pie. Jenna dreams of running away, but she is trapped inside her miserable life by poverty and her inability to access her own personal strength. Then she meets Dr. Pomatter, the handsome new gynecologist in town. When a friend encourages her to write a letter to her unwanted baby, an unexpected love story develops that changes Jenna's life.

“Russell delivers a wonderful, complex performance as Jenna, a repressed woman reaching for happiness, while Shelly infuses the film with a luminous magical sensibility and an endearing sense of humor. Confident and clear in vision, WAITRESS makes delicious upside-down cake of the Cinderella myth.” (Sundance Film Festival catalogue)

“If WAITRESS were one of Jenna's pies, it would be a sky-high lemon meringue -- light, airy, not too sweet, with a tart, satisfying filling.” (Hollywood Reporter)

“A wonderful little movie . . . starring the beautiful Keri Russell. A funny, sweet film, with a marvelous performance (among many such) by Andy Griffith. Go see it.” (Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly)

“Satisfying and surprising. Part feminist fable, part romantic fairy tale, it is by turns tart and sweet, charming and tough, rather like its heroine and like Keri Russell.” (A.O. Scott, New York Times)

“A remarkable achievement.” (Wall Street Journal)