By Curt Schleier

An overwhelming sense of sadness envelops the DVD of WAITRESS, the remarkable and ironically optimistic film written, directed and starring Adrienne Shelly.  For those who don’t know the story, Shelly was murdered in November 2006, just a few days after this film was selected for Sundance. 

Allegedly, a construction worker angered by her complaints about his noise killed her and tried to make it look like a suicide.  Just 40 years old, she was survived by her husband, a three-year-old daughter and this wonderful film.  It’s easy to get maudlin watching the DVD, with a special feature tribute to the filmmaker, clearly heartfelt comments by the people she worked with.  And it is of course more than just a little eerie listening to her in the “making of” documentary.  But the overwhelmingly positive tone of WAITRESS makes it well worth viewing.

Jenna (Keri Russell) is stuck in a marriage to a man she can’t stand.  Her hubby Earl (Jeremy Sisto) is a bully who abuses her.  At first it’s almost a Dixie Chicks video.  The only thing that provides relief is baking pies served at the small town diner where she works.

Baking pies is one of the things she’s really good at.  Jenna has been secretly secreting part of her earnings.  Her goal is to win a pie baking contest and take the prize money plus the cash she’s kept from Earl and use it to run away and fund a pie shop she wants to open. 


That dream evaporates first when she discovers she’s pregnant and then again when Earl finds the money she’s hidden.  Jenna finds solace in her pie making.  She even names them, including the “I don’t want Earl’s baby” pie.  There’s a measure of escape, too, in the fling she begins with Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion), the new doctor in town and her obstetrician.

And there’s also comfort in the company of her friends, Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly), fellow waitresses, and the diner’s kindly owner, Old Joe (Andy Griffith). 

At first, it is difficult to imagine that anyone who is as attractive as Keri Russell (FELICITY), could ever be trapped in a relationship.  When you are that good looking, there are always alternatives.  But she is so earnest in her role, so sincere, you soon overlook her extraordinary good looks and think of her just as a sad waitress. 

 You can’t predict the future.  Who knows what if any other great films Shelly might have made?  Certainly based on the evidence, there were more to come.  And I hope this comes out sounding the way I mean it.  But what’s done is done.  At least she left this marvelous legacy.  There are people who go through their entire lives and leave nothing positive behind.  I can’t imagine that that’s solace for her husband and young daughter, but maybe it’s something.