Tasty as Pie

Today, I took advantage of the great weather and the long weekend and my boss's willingness to let us cut out early to meet up with Joyous for a rare midafternoon movie treat. We were both curious about that quirky new movie Waitress, so we made our way to G-town to check it out.

Keri Russell (aka Felicity, aka the Babysitter who was Seduced) stars as a small town Southern gal who's stuck in a dead-end marriage and trying to find a way out of her life. The only thing that gives her any real pleasure is making pies, and she has a real gift for it - making such scrumptious looking concoctions with such colorful names that you will start to get some serious cravings watching this movie. Suddenly, she finds herself pregnant and resentful... which leads her to the ob-gyn's office where she meets the doctor who will change her life.

Keri is so very... charming, and beautiful, and real. She plays miserable and hopeful and spiteful and hopeless all equally well. Jeremy Sisto plays her sumbitch husband to a tee, Cheryl Hines is a kick as a fellow waitress sidekick, and Adrienne Shelly - who wrote and directed the movie and was tragically murdered before it ever opened - is touching as another waitress who has a romantic side story of her own. If you're not already in love with Nathan Fillion, I bet you will be by the time this movie is over. (That "teach me to make pie" scene in the kitchen made me teary....) And Andy Griffith, as the town's resident old codger with the heart of gold, just about steals every scene he is in.

Waitress is getting some darn good reviews, so I hope this movie sticks around for a while. I fully recommend you check it out -- and if you miss it in theaters, there's a very good chance I'll be buying it in the future to add to my own personal collection!