If only life were easy as pie...
Waitress is a 2007 dramedy about Jenna, an unhappily married waitress/pie-baking-genius from the deep south. When she discovers she is pregnant by her abusive and domineering husband with no other choice but to keep the unwanted baby, she begins a passionate affair with her new (and very much married) gynecologist. The film follows her small steps towards self-actualization, independence, and happiness, while being supported by the staff and customers of the diner she works in and their own stories.
Directed by Adrienne Shelly, whose shockingly random murder overshadowed the mostly positive reviews of the film, it stars Keri Russell as Jenna, Jeremy Sisto as her husband Earl, Nathan Fillion as the gynecologist Dr. Pomatter, Cheryl Hines as her promiscuous friend Becky, and Andy Griffith as Joe, the diner's owner.
Not to be confused with the 1981 Troma "sexy comedy" Waitress!.
As of April 24, 2016, there is now a musical version on Broadway with music by Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson, starring Jessie Mueller as Jenna Hunterson.
This movie contains examples of:
- Appeal to Worse Problems: Becky and Dawn acknowledge that while Jenna is gorgeous and has a great skill for making pies, as lonely (Dawn) or mundane and worrisome (Becky) as their lives may get, they don't envy Jenna at all due to her asshole husband.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Dawn is worried her blind date will be a murderer, a stalker, or colorblind.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Subverted. Jenna finally does gather the courage to dump her husband after her daughter is born, but this is merely the last step of a long emancipation process. Rather, she makes things better for the baby.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Becky and Cal.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: An in-universe example where Jenna is smiling happily while carrying trays to customers. Both Cal and Becky look extremely confused when this happens.
- Birds of a Feather: Ogie and Dawn are this in the musical, as both enjoy Revolutionary War reenactments.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jenna escapes her abusive husband and opens a pie shop with her daughter, but Joe dies and Jenna ends things (albeit amicably) with Dr. Pomatter. For fans of their relationship, it's a bit disappointing, though it is the most realistic outcome.
- Blond, Brunette, Redhead: The three waitresses: blonde Becky, brunette Jenna, and strawberry blonde Dawn.
- Broken Bird: Jenna thanks to years of suffering under Earl's abuse.
- Buffy Speak: Lots, and it tends to be delivered by the adorable neurotic Dr. Pomatter. But considering who plays him, that's no stretch.
- Chocolate of Romance: Jenna's signature falling-in-love pie is made with plenty of chocolate.
- Cool Old Guy: Joe. However much he tries to hide it behind his grumpy facade, his likability and kindness shine through anyway. He's even played by Andy Griffith, making him cool automatically.
- Crapsaccharine World: On occasions, the film's aesthetic is very similar to another piemaker's story. The darkness of the touched topics, however, prevents the idyllic Southern setting from becoming a Sugar Bowl.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Childbirth finally defrosts Jenna.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Justified in that Dr. Pomatter is a married man and Jenna ultimately realizes she doesn't need him to be happy.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Jenna ultimately gains the strength to leave her abusive husband and make a new and better life for herself and her daughter.
- Food Porn: Jenna's pies will have you drooling through the entire film.
- Foreshadowing: Joe's words about not being around for much longer. Poor guy.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: It's Lampshaded where Jenna actually states to Becky that "having an affair is wrong because everyone involved will get hurt", while she continues to have her affair.
- Insistent Terminology: Jenna refuses to call Dr. Pomatter by his first name (Jim) even when they're having an affair.
- It's All About Me: Earl claims to love Jenna but he treats her like his property, not as a loved one or even just as a person. He even makes her promise not to love the baby more than him. (In the musical, he reminds her of this promise immediately after she finishes giving birth.)
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Joe. He makes a big deal of being a grump who enjoys the suffering of others but Jenna sees that he's a big softie underneath it and isn't afraid to tell him as much.
- Cal also counts. He tells Jenna that he's "not such a bad guy after all" when she officially tells him she's pregnant. He also tries to intervene when Earl was getting physical at Dawn and Ogie's wedding.
- Job Title: Titled Waitress and its heroine waitresses and bakes pies for a local diner.
- Last-Name Basis: Jenna won't call Dr. Pomatter by his first name even though he uses hers.
- Leitmotif: The music that plays whenever Jenna invents a new pie.
- Lohengrin and Mendelssohn: A fiddle and banjo version of "Here Comes the Bride" plays to introduce the wedding of Dawn and Ogie.
- Odd Friendship: Jenna develops one with Old Joe. It also doubles as an Intergenerational Friendship since, judging by their actors' ages, he is about fifty years older.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The last shot of Jenna and Lulu walking off.
- One-Word Title: As a single work Job Title.
- Pet the Dog: Deconstructed. Earl has a breakdown, cries about the possibility of losing Jenna, and permits her to buy a crib for the baby. If anything, it does portray the abusive marriage even more realistically. Such Pet the Dog moments in a husband like this are probably what makes leaving a cruel man harder because after all, look, he can be good sometimes, so maybe he can be good all the time, if only you just keep trying. They're the "honeymoon phase" in the cycle of abuse.
- Psychopathic Man Child: Earl, who's a pathetic whiner at best.
- Running Gag: "I gotta go throw up."
- Secret Relationship: Jenna and Dr. Pomatter. Cal and Becky, the ones who are constantly bickering!
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Dawn can be very pretty.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Becky and Cal go back and forth with one another with almost every conversation they have. Especially in the musical.
- Three Faces of Eve: Jenna is the Wife (though, as has been established, not a happy one), Becky is the Seductress, and Dawn is the Child.
- Voiceover Letter: Jenna repeatedly writes letters to her future child, which are rendered in "Dear baby..." voiceovers.
