Waitress serves dose of charm

Get ready to be served the newest romantic comedy that will warm your heart like caramel on hot apple pie. Keri Russell stars in Waitress, an indie rom-com that premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Russell plays Jenna, a small-town Southern waitress who has never loved her abusive and controlling husband Earl, played by Jeremy Sisto of Six Feet Under. Jenna works at a pie diner with two other waitresses, Becky and Dawn, played by Cheryl Hines and the late Adrienne Shelly, who wrote and directed the film. The three form a sisterly bond as they deal with the issues in their lives about men and finding love. With barely any money to call her own and no car, Jenna feels completely trapped in her unhappy marriage. When Jenna learns she's pregnant, she's not thrilled and doesn't feel any emotional connection toward the baby. A glimmer of hope and escape for Jenna comes in the form of her attractive new doctor. Through the advice of Old Joe, the owner of the diner played by Andy Griffith, and the support of her co-workers, Jenna finds the true love and real happiness she's wanted all along, and it was right under her nose the entire time. Waitress has the feel of Return to Me with Minnie Driver. Both feature a wedding held in a restaurant, and both have the main character finding love in unexpected places. But while Return to Me had the main characters predictably falling in love, Waitress does not have a predictable ending. While most romantic comedies are "boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy gets married to girl," Waitress has the courage to take on a different ending than the usual recipe. Like Jenna's mermaid marshmallow pie, the ending is unexpectedly satisfying. What makes Waitress special is that it never takes itself too seriously. Jenna's passion is making pies, and she comes up with a new pie each day to serve in the diner. When things get rough, she takes over as narrator of the movie and uses her pie-making skills as therapy. For instance, Jenna creates her own "Earl-murders-me-because-I'm-having-an-affair" pie and "Baby-screaming-in-the-middle-of-the-night-and-ruining-my-life" pie. This movie is funny, in a Gilmore Girls hundred-miles-a-minute-dialogue kind of way. Griffith adds comic relief and words of wisdom for Jenna. Old Joe is a slightly horny and somewhat crazy old man who comes into the diner every day. Despite his nit-picky demands and bossy attitude toward the waitresses, he grows on the audience because he genuinely cares about Jenna and her life choices. While Russell's Southern accent isn't always perfect, and some of her outbursts of frustration seem out of place, the audience will find themselves hoping Jenna takes control of her life, leave her husband and accepts the baby she's carrying. What sets Waitress apart as an exceptional movie is that all the characters are likeable and the audience will truly want them to find happiness. Even Earl, the controlling husband, has some redeeming dialogue that reluctantly pulls at the audience's heart-strings. This movie blends the emotions that come with a forbidden infatuation, mixes it with "aw" moments and is topped with a dash of Southern charm. Like trying out a new recipe, Waitress shows that sometimes life ends up better than we ever imagined. Waitress opens in select theaters on May 2.