David O'ConnellWaitress - An Adrienne Shelley Epitaph
April 28th 2008 11:09
Waitress, an endearing, offbeat comedy is the perfect culmination of Adrienne Shelley’s tragically short but significant career as an actress, and finally, as a very fine writer/director who just may have continued on to even greater things with this mature work behind her. Though we won’t ever know with her being murdered under strange circumstances not long after this film was completed.
Posthumously released in 2007, it is an important film in its own right however and hopefully it’ll continue to find the kind of audiences it deserves, richly imbued as it is with the spirit of great independent cinema (which she so significantly contributed to), with barely a false note in its characterizations, each one so well defined and fleshed out and identifiable. Even the most perhipheral characters with perhaps only a scene or two leave an impression.
We follow the lives of 3 small-town diner waitresses, though Keri Russell, in a wonderful performance takes centre stage. She’s married to the film’s one hideous, unsympathetic character – a violent, manipulating bully, played by Jeremy Sisto, but finds reluctant love in the shape of the town’s new doctor (Serenity’s Nathan Fillion showing surprising range and depth!).
Adrienne Shelley writes herself as a slightly eccentric, but lovable secondary character, but she made a career out of such roles with her offbeat looks, ever since her earliest work in classic Hal Hartley films like Trust which I remember so vividly from nearly 20 years ago. (Why do I always remember the redheads?!!?)
Andy Griffith has a wonderful role as a fussy and irritable old regular in the diner too, who silently becomes a key figure in how the story ends.
Will Keri Russell’s waitress escape the clutches of her husband and give a decent man a chance for the sake of her own redemption?
The outcome may be far from clear cut or predictable and either way it’s a rich journey getting there.
And I don’t think the bittersweet feeling which overwhelmed me at the end was simply from knowing the tainted and tragic tale of the film’s gifted author, dead at just 40 – that would detract from how brilliantly this film stands as a work on its own.
Waitress is, in fact, a true gem, one to treasure and return to, savouring and admiring it’s humour and originality of vision.
Rent it and watch it.
And then go back to revisit The Unbelievable Truth and Trust to see how a wonderful career in film began and ended.
.
Posthumously released in 2007, it is an important film in its own right however and hopefully it’ll continue to find the kind of audiences it deserves, richly imbued as it is with the spirit of great independent cinema (which she so significantly contributed to), with barely a false note in its characterizations, each one so well defined and fleshed out and identifiable. Even the most perhipheral characters with perhaps only a scene or two leave an impression.
We follow the lives of 3 small-town diner waitresses, though Keri Russell, in a wonderful performance takes centre stage. She’s married to the film’s one hideous, unsympathetic character – a violent, manipulating bully, played by Jeremy Sisto, but finds reluctant love in the shape of the town’s new doctor (Serenity’s Nathan Fillion showing surprising range and depth!).
Adrienne Shelley writes herself as a slightly eccentric, but lovable secondary character, but she made a career out of such roles with her offbeat looks, ever since her earliest work in classic Hal Hartley films like Trust which I remember so vividly from nearly 20 years ago. (Why do I always remember the redheads?!!?)
Andy Griffith has a wonderful role as a fussy and irritable old regular in the diner too, who silently becomes a key figure in how the story ends.
Will Keri Russell’s waitress escape the clutches of her husband and give a decent man a chance for the sake of her own redemption?
And I don’t think the bittersweet feeling which overwhelmed me at the end was simply from knowing the tainted and tragic tale of the film’s gifted author, dead at just 40 – that would detract from how brilliantly this film stands as a work on its own.
Waitress is, in fact, a true gem, one to treasure and return to, savouring and admiring it’s humour and originality of vision.
Rent it and watch it.
And then go back to revisit The Unbelievable Truth and Trust to see how a wonderful career in film began and ended.
.
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Comment by Linh
Celluloid Fun
It was a bittersweet film which I thought gets a bit sentimental at times but still a wonderful and worthwhile experience.
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
I have to admit I think my own feelings at the end were influenced by her tragedy and also because the little girl who plays Kerri Russell's daughter in that last scene is actually Shelley's daughter. But that's not necessarily a bad thing- films are a product of their times, we always bring in our own personal baggage when we watch a film, which explains why different films appeal to different people.
You write very well by the way, I love sussing out other writer's styles and yours is definitely a good one.
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