Monday Recommended!! Waitress!!

Each Monday I recommend a film that may have passed you by: This week I recommend Waitress!!
Now even if you have had the chance to see this before, take another look because I am recommending this not only because it is a good film, but also because it is coming to Broadway as a musical featuring music produced by Sara Bareilles!! Plus there is a real sad story to this movie that I will touch on later.

WAITRESS
Directed by Adrienne Shelly
Screenplay by Adrienne Shelly
Starring: Keri Russell; Nathan Fillion; Jeremy Sisto; Adrienne Shelly; Cheryl Hines; and Andy Griffith



Jenna (Keri Russell) is a pregnant, unhappily married waitress in the deep south. She meets a doctor (Fillion) new to her town and falls into an unlikely relationship.

I think the relationship with her DR is icky. The abusive relationship with Earl (Sisto) is maddening.
Still what makes this film work is the diner (and pies). In fact the relationship with the DR could have been written out and I could have just watched Jenna and the folks in the diner. Cheryl Hines as fellow waitress Becky is great. Adrienne Shelly (also writer and director) is adorable as Dawn. Andy Griffith is, well Andy Griffith as the grumpy but knowledgeable and very observant Old Joe. The diner brings much needed humor and so do the pies!!

This is a very sweet lovely film about a young lady trying to get out and follow a dream. I really like this movie, 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. Waitress is available for rent through Netflix. Catch it before it hits Broadway!!


Now the awful backstory:
While finishing up post production on the film, actress (Dawn in the film), also the screenwriter and director Adrienne Shelly was murdered in her NY apartment. An 19-year-old Ecuadorian illegal immigrant and construction worker confessed to slaying the actress, whom he left hanging by a bed sheet from a shower rod in the bathroom of her Manhattan office/apartment. She was found by her husband. The killer pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Diego Pillco. He admitted strangling her after she caught him trying to rob her apartment. He also confessed to hanging her and stage it as a suicide. At the time he was helping to renovate an apartment in the same West Village building where she had her office. He said he panicked when Shelly discovered him stealing from her purse and threatened to call the police.
When the film was released it put a damper on the premier and may have kept people away because of the sadness surrounding the movie. It made it hard to watch because she is in the film and her character is adorable. I disagree, I think this is what she left behind for us to see and out of respect for her it should be watched and enjoyed, just like she wanted.


Spoiler Warning: At the end you see Jenna walking down a road with her daughter. That young girl playing her daughter is Shelly's daughter Sophie. I hope the musical is a success for Sophie!!


From the shadows thanks for your time!!