Easy to Love and Harder to Hold
Waitress (2007)
directed by Adrienne Shelly
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
I'm not the only one, I'm sure, to wonder why Shelly, who wrote Waitress for her daughter, couldn't frame Keri Russell's pregnancy as something other than a drunken accident. I understand that, without the pregnancy, there isn't a film, but if a doctor can't even mention the word "abortion" onscreen, why harp on the unwanted conception? Why not say the pregnancy was a bad decision? Regretted too late, perhaps, but a decision nonetheless? Why does sex always have to exist in such a fog in movies, as if no one understands how it works?
I'll stop harping on this when films get smart about it. It shouldn't be the focus of this review, because Waitress is a likable, sweet love story full of sympathy and understanding for every one of Shelly's characters - even, and especially, the heels. I don't think I'll ever outgrow my knee-jerk reaction to sappy monologues, since I only need a Moonstruck or a Joe Versus the Volcano (same writer, right?), or, here, Andy Griffith saying something about regret to realize that romance can be pretty unbearable and still plow right through me.
The truth is, there isn't such an enormous leap from Waitress to Le Rayon Vert, and that's one of my favorite movies. People just need a little time to figure things out on their own.
directed by Adrienne Shelly
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
I'm not the only one, I'm sure, to wonder why Shelly, who wrote Waitress for her daughter, couldn't frame Keri Russell's pregnancy as something other than a drunken accident. I understand that, without the pregnancy, there isn't a film, but if a doctor can't even mention the word "abortion" onscreen, why harp on the unwanted conception? Why not say the pregnancy was a bad decision? Regretted too late, perhaps, but a decision nonetheless? Why does sex always have to exist in such a fog in movies, as if no one understands how it works?
I'll stop harping on this when films get smart about it. It shouldn't be the focus of this review, because Waitress is a likable, sweet love story full of sympathy and understanding for every one of Shelly's characters - even, and especially, the heels. I don't think I'll ever outgrow my knee-jerk reaction to sappy monologues, since I only need a Moonstruck or a Joe Versus the Volcano (same writer, right?), or, here, Andy Griffith saying something about regret to realize that romance can be pretty unbearable and still plow right through me.
The truth is, there isn't such an enormous leap from Waitress to Le Rayon Vert, and that's one of my favorite movies. People just need a little time to figure things out on their own.
posted by NPK at 12:57 PM
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