Waitress
MPAA Rating:
 for sexual content, language and thematic elementsReviewed by: Misty Wagner Extremely Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
 ½Primary Audience:
Adults
Genre:
Comedy, Romance
Length:
1 hr. 47 min.
Year of Release:
2007
USA Release:
May 2, 2007
          Relevant Issues
What does the Bible say about adultery? Answer Personal stories about adultery and its consequences…
Is marriage becoming obsolete? Answer How can I deal with temptations? Answer What are the consequences of sexual immorality? Answer 
“If life was only as easy as pie.” When watching films, I try very hard to see them as art. I try to be open-minded enough to see that, even if the content is offensive, the artists creating it could have had deeper reasons—deeper meaning. Anyone who has really seen a trailer for “Waitress” knows that the storyline involves adultery. Being a Keri Russel fan (“Mission: Impossible III,” “We Were Soldiers”), I guess I began telling myself that this “sweet little romantic comedy” would have infidelities which were justified, because her character’s husband appeared to be an abusive jerk. The plot of this film is simple. There is a girl named Jenna (Keri Russel) who is a pie genius. Everyone loves her pies. She is beautiful, talented, and yet no one envies her life. Every night, after working a long, hard day at a local pie diner, Jenna goes home to her controlling and abusive husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto - “Thirteen”). Earl takes her money, belittles and verbally degrades her. He controls her every move and demands that she recite silly little apologies and self condemnations to him. Eventually we discover that he is also physically abusive. There is nothing redemptive about him, and so, as Jenna begins a lustful affair with her OB-GYN Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion - “Serenity,” “Slither”) it’s pretty easy to get caught up in the charm of it all. Jenna finds reason to smile, Jenna is finally cherished for the woman she is. *Possible Spoilers* “Waitress” is a truly dangerous film. Granted, it is full of lighthearted moments, inspiration for laughter and the occasional heartwarming sigh. It is my belief that it is because of these things that it is most dangerous. Adultery is nothing to take lightly. It is painful and destructive, with dire consequences. The love affair between Jenna and her doctor does, eventually, become less about lust and grow into something deeper. This is where I may tread into controversial waters… I realize the adultery on her part IS wrong because ssin is sin, but given her circumstances, it is easy to root for the “prince” to ride in and save her. What truly offended me is that Dr. Pomatter is also married. Married to a great woman whom he seems to adore—a woman who is kind and trusts him. Then there is the fact that Jenna’s co-worker (who is married to an invalid that she constantly badmouths) is sleeping with their boss (who is ALSO married). In fact, the only time that marriage is even spoken of favorably is when Jenna’s other co-worker Dawn marries her boyfriend. The downside of this, however, is that they only just met not long before. This movie deals with realistic, horrific details that affect millions of homes. The women in this film talk about loneliness and a need for adventure. These women echo the hearts of most (if not every) woman in the audience. They justify their infidelities by using their brokenness as reason enough. The storyline is quite often played off with laughter, but it resonates beneath the surface, and I fear that this will only add one more thing for women to daydream about and wish for, when their lives feel less grand than they had hoped. One character, Joe (played by Andy Griffith) seemed to voice Jenna’s conscience. He would tell her the affair was wrong, encourage her to start fresh, begin new. His few minutes on screen are the only slightly redemptive moments of this film. There are other offenses, a few bad words, a few very mild sex scenes, physical abuse and on screen anger. Truthfully every other offense in this film pales in comparison to the bigger issue. In closing, I felt a particular conversation was worth noting. Somewhere around the middle of the film, Jenna asks her boss Cal if he is happy. His response is “Happy enough.” He goes on to elaborate about how he doesn’t need much, or have much, so when things come along he doesn’t take them for granted. His answer was used to justify his affair with his employee. Jenna used his response to confirm how right it was for her to continue her affair. Everyone was so concerned about their happiness, in the moment. No one stopped to think about later on. As for the quality of the film artistically, it was well acted and well made, until the end. It literally was as though a group of people looked at the mess they had tangled together, collaborated to tie the end up with a fairy-tale-like ribbon and call it a brightly-colored happily-ever-after. No consequences, no reality. A pretty bow on the end of a mangled, human mess. Life isn’t like that, and if this were simply the romantic comedy it advertises—I guess that wouldn’t be so vital. It isn’t though; it toys with the heart strings of aching women… Even for the strong of spirit, and not easily offended, I don’t recommend this film. Violence: Mild / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Moderate See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.  Comments below:
Positive
Positive - My wife and I are very conservative but enjoyed the film very much. I agree with the review that there are some offensive messages but we also saw two redeeming factors. The first one was that no woman should stay in an abusive relationship. Though Jenna is not justified in having an affair, she is justified in her desire to leave him and to get out of this mess at all costs. Andy Griffith gives a great performance and serves as the conservative view point in this film. His advise and wisdom that he shared with Jenna was right on target without beating her over the head with scripture verses. I believe viewers will appreciate this film even more when they realize that the creator, director and writer of this film was a woman and was pregnant at the time she wrote this screenplay. She was also murdered in her apartment (Nov. 2006) before the release of this film. Positive - I took my daughters to see this movie on a sneak preview. The theater was packed, not one empty seat and we were looking forward to it, we are fans of Keri Russell. The movie was very good and entertaining. We were not disappointed at all. Jenna, played by Keri Russell, had dreams of a better life, having greater expectations above what she was living. Her husband seemed to love her, but he was self-centered and completely controlling when it came to Jenna. Their relationship was about him, his wants and needs and he was selfish. She had to conform to his ideas of what she was suppose to be in his mind or she would suffer either verbal or physical abuse. She is most unhappy in her marriage. She works at a diner, where she has conversations with Andy Griffith, who eats at the diner a lot. He turns out to become her friend and ends up leaving her money after his death. Positive - I almost did not see this movie based on the this Web sites’s review, but decided to go anyway. Then I wondered if the reviewer for Christian Spotlight actually saw the same movie, or at least, understood it. The Bible has many sordid stories, such as David and Bathsheba's adulterous affair. However, God shares these 'offensive' things with us to prove a point. Sin only destroys. While it is tempting because it is fun for the moment, it only ends in broken trust, heart-ache and pain. The main character of Waitress is a genuine, caring person who is conflicted throughout the movie by both her current marital situation and her affair, both of which she knows are wrong. While the affair is fun and provides her a type of happiness in her current state, she is conflicted by its immorality. Her journey takes her past the immorality of the affair to a conversion of mind and heart where she finds delight and love not in what is immoral, but in what is pure. Positive - I strongly disagree with this review, for these reasons. Firstly, this review claims this movie is dangerous because it “glorifies” adultery. Here is some news, just because a subject is portrayed, doesn't mean it's glorified. *possible spoilers* In fact, the overall message of the film is that Jenna's actions are wrong, and therefore she stops doing them. Jenna cheating on her husband is always seen as a negative thing, and characters (even Jenna herself) say so many times. Since none of us are perfect, of course, movies are going to revolve around sin, as our lives do. This movie is a wonderful bright spot in the world of modern movies. The cast is charming and funny and the overall feel is very down-to-earth and comfortable. Positive - It's easy when watching this film to get hung up on the adulterous situations without seeing all the other little life lessons this film has to offer. The good news is that many of the lessons revolve around adultery and how WRONG it is. The film isn't glorifying adultery—in the end, it shows you the side of things nobody thinks about—the fact that someone is always going to be hurt in adultery. In the end, the adulteress learns her lesson and feels horrible for it and the adulterer is left looking like a jerk. However, in order to show atonement for the sin, there first must be a sin to show atonement for—and this film does it tastefully. There are no explicit sex scenes that make everyone feel awkward. Positive - Speaking as a veteran volunteer youth minister, this is one film that I would love to show to my students and have some serious discussion about it. …I, myself, found the movie FULL of redemption: ***spoiler alert, skip the next paragraph*** Neutral
Neutral - I am going to give this movie a neutral reaction, rather than outright negative, although there is a lot wrong with the subject matter. It is so terribly amoral. Amoral in that there seems to be no concept of morality until the main character, Jenna, played beautifully by Kerri Russell, has the backbone and insight to end all relations with that immoral and unethical doctor of her’s who thinks nothing of cheating on his loving wife. The scenes in which Jenna throws herself at the good doctor are so ridiculous and uninspired they are laughable and pitiful. I did not see any appeal in the actor who played the role of the doctor, so Jenna's lunging at him for lustful interaction was very contrived. The one good thing about this movie was Russell's performance and also the character of Jenna, who finds her way out of a terribly oppressive life with the so-called husband, who makes a mockery of the title by the way he treats her. In the end, she does the right thing. Negative
Negative - My husband and I rented this movie thinking it would be a sweet, clean, romance movie. We both felt it was trashy and made it seem like adultery was an alternative and the norm. At least the main charter Jenna looks a little better, since she is in an abusive marriage looking for a way to get out, and in the end leaves the MARRIED doctor she is cheating with. She also doesn't abort her baby… The doctor is made out to be this really nice guy that is willing to leave his perfectly good wife for Jenna. To me, he took advantage of a vulnerable person, and she went for it. There is swearing, another couple that commit adultery, and some weird partial nudity—when Jenna FIRST goes to the doctor’s office, she looks at two women that are pregnant and then sees them as being nude. A magazine covers most of their breasts, and their legs are folded to hide their bottom half. I forget what the point of this was, if there was any. The movie in itself is just weird and has many lulls and nonsense. There are far better things to spend your money on then this! I see a lot of movies, and this is garbage. Boring, immoral, pointless. Don't waste your time. Negative - The element of the sanctity of life was exciting to see. I love that she acknowledged her unborn baby's right to exist/thrive. As for negatives, I have to repeat what everyone else has said about the affairs. I was VERY open to this movie because I saw tons of conflicting views: nothing offensive in terms of sexual content to highly offensive, so I wanted to watch it for myself. However, I feel like the scenes of “kissing” were pretty, shall we say, explicit. Examples being: Kerri Russell's character in bed with her husband, him on top asking her to say something sexy, she asks what to say, and then we hear him give off a loud moan… a few scenes of people in their affair kissing with legs wrapped around each other, very sensual, but common in movies nowadays. Dialogue did contain sexual language. Overall, I think that as Christians it's important to keep in mind that Paul tells us “but among you there MUST NOT BE even a HINT of sexual immorality….” Negative - After watching this movie, I wondered what else I could have done with the movie and time I just wasted… Negative - My husband and I rented this thinking it might be cute. There is nothing cute about adultery. And this movie was loaded with it. We are also sick and tired of seeing men portrayed as idiots, abusers, cheats and in the end not necessary. This movie was not cute at all. Negative - After reading the summary of the movie on the back of the DVD, and a short review, and upon seeing that Andy Griffith was one of the actors, I just knew this had to be a sweet romantic story. I watched it with my son and daughter-in-law, and all of us were totally disgusted with it. |
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