Pie Movie - Waitress

All right. Maybe you want to think about pie, but without having to make or eat one yourself.

(Really?)

The couch is too comfortable, the kitchen is too warm, your belly too full, the cupboard too bare. In that case, maybe today is the day to see "Waitress." If you didn't see it when it came to the Tower Theatre in 2006, you can get it on DVD. We just watched it again the other night (thank you, McClatchy Library).

The film features Keri Russell as the young, small-town titular waitress, who is even more of a pie baker than Sac Pie. Unlike Sac Pie's pie thing, though, pies help the troubled Jenna express her feelings, and at the same time, assert some measure of control and accomplishment in her very out-of-control life. She even gives pies as gifts, and her pies are the talk of the town.

The movie was directed by Adrienne Shelley, who also plays the role of one of Jenna's two waitress friends. I fell in love with Adrienne Shelley in Hal Hartley's movies, "The Unbelievable Truth," and "Trust," but that's another story.

They made a lot of pies in this movie - the pies were uncredited as co-stars, however. There's I Hate My Husband pie, I Don't Want Earl's Baby pie, Naughty Pumpkin pie, Vanilla Custard Pie With Banana Hold the Banana, and several others. Not an expected normal pie among them, sweet or savory. There is a song about pie that Adrienne Shelley wrote for the movie - kind of a pie lullaby.

Amidst all of the inventing and making of pies, there is a very real and compelling story of a woman who has lost her way. There is romance, desperation, sparklingly funny dialogue, wayward men, and a tasty plot twist. We watch Jenna make (and sometimes unmake) several pies in the kitchen of the diner where she works - and there, she is in charge and restored to herself. The pies look gorgeous, most of the time, and we get to see several people digging in to them. Adrienne Shelley claimed that she added several pounds during the filming, because of all the pie.

This movie has a wealth of elements that we all can identify with: small town charm, what we learned from our parents, friendship, doomed relationships, the fears of being a parent, living with our mistakes, and figuring out how to be happy are among the themes in "Waitress."

It's a sweet and lively movie, and Sac Pie loves it for many reasons, but especially for putting pie in the foreground for those of us on the couch!