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</script></div>{/googleAds}It may come as a surprise to auds to hear that Waitress is more wholehearted than its humdrum title indicates. But only slightly. Director Adrienne Shelley (Factotum, actress, 2005) concocts an amiable tale of lost-and-found love. Shelley's story sets up nicely with its recipe of one part down-home simpler life quaintness—with a hint of real-life quandary. Trouble brews from the fact that the spice-of-reality plot-points are never served up in convincing enough fashion as the melancholy pregnant-protagonist labors to deliver herself into a life of happiness. Consequently, the movie leaves a vanilla aftertaste.

A rundown looking early-30-something, Jenna (Keri Russell, August Rush) is trapped in a loveless, childless marriage with her domineering husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto, TV's Six Feet Under). Her only solace in life is working as a waitress at â"Joe's Pie Shop," a tiny diner where Jenna is a local favorite because of the original pie recipes she bakes up to the delight of coworkers and customers. Between fantasies about making a new life for herself, Jenna is devastated to find out she is pregnant. Congratulations are not in order because Jenna has no desire to have a baby—stopping shy of ever uttering the suggestion of an abortion. When the inevitable and much dreaded regular prenatal checkups begin Jenna discovers the dormant passion inside her by falling in love with her gynecologist (Nathan Fillion, TV's Desperate Housewives). The opposites-attract fling is complicated by the fact that her doctor is married too. This makes for a tangled web of energizing passion and adulterous guilt. Sounds romantic, right? It works better than you might think because we know enough about Jenna to know she deserves to be happy. With baby on the way, Jenna must overcome the pressure to balance her hapless marriage, newfound love, pending motherhood, and moral responsibility to do the right thing.

Where Shelley's Waitress suffers is in its tonal conviction. It never strikes a balance between life's harsh true-to-life realities and the longed-for joy that emerges from unexpected places. As with any threadbare TV sitcom this tale uses chuckle-inducing trials and tribulations as a means to send a gladdening message. Taking place in an anonymous southern local, the story feels suspiciously like a mixture between the southern-set The Andy Griffith Show (TV, 1960-1968) and the diner-set Alice (TV, 1976-1985). In the case of the latter, Waitress particularly borrows—having its own crotchety, tough-love cook (Mel) and two supporting zany waitresses (‘Flo' and Vera). In the same vein as said shows, this theatrical fare is harmlessly pleasant and easily forgettable—the message here being that motherhood has the unique power to provide the clarity this mom-to-be needs to grasp happiness. The film is at its cleverest when using Jenna's prolific pie-making creations as a tool for the narrative expression of her subconscious hopes and fears. Giving her pies names that reflect her state-of-mind, she humorously names one of her pastries: â"I don't want Earl's baby pie."

Supporting characters such as the lustful gynecologist Dr. Pomatter and Jenna's fellow waitresses—and best friends—Becky (Cheryl Hines, TV's Curb Your Enthusiasm ) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelley) are too underdeveloped to help support the weight of the situation. Back stories for these supporting characters would have helped draw more realistic setting for places and circumstances, thus giving the story the strength of its ‘in absentia' conviction. As it is, you never forget that you're just watching this character's ‘R' rated struggles through a ‘PG-13' prism—all of which are quickly resolved by the mysteriously, and unexplored, convenient virtues of motherhood.

Older viewers may be pleasantly surprised to see former television star Andy Griffith (The Andy Griffith Show, 1960-1968) turn up in a welcomed—albeit opaque (What is this guy's story?)—performance as the curmudgeon diner-owner Joe. Viewing experience for many may be bittersweet when learning that writer, director, and costar Adrienne Shelley—a married mother of one herself—was tragically murdered in 2006 at age 40 before Waitress was shown at the 2007 Sundance Festival. The film won Sundance's â"Humanitas Prize" (an annual screenwriter's award honoring excellence in film and TV for humanizing writing). Her death preceded the theatrical release of the film.

DVD Details:

Screen Formats: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen

Subtitles: English; French; Spanish

Language and Sound: English: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish Dolby 2.0 stereo

Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; commentary; making-of and other featurettes; Fox Movie Channel promos.

* Commentary
o Feature-length commentary with producer Michael Roiff and Keri Russell
* Featurettes
o This Is How We Made Waitress Pie (10:17) - making-of featurette
o Written and Directed by Adrienne Shelly: A Memorial (06:50)
o Hi! I'm Keri, And I'll Be Your Waitress (05:44)
o The Pies Have It! (02:53)
* Promos - Fox Movie Channel promos
o In Character With
o 47-second promo for the Adrienne Shelly Foundation

Number of Discs: 1 with Keepcase Packaging

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