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100Waitress deserves an essay, not just a review. There are perfect moments that stand out, and the reasons for their perfection are interesting.
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100A wee romantic charmer, a delectable Dixie screwball romp that never loses its spry sense of discovery.
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100The writer-director Adrienne Shelly, who died in New York City late last year at the age of 40, took such perishable ingredients as wit, daring, poignancy, whimsy and romance, added passionate feelings plus the constant possibility of joy, decorated her one-of-a-kind production with pastel colors and created something close to perfection.
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91The movie is an inspired comedy-drama about artistic temperament.
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91The film is laced with lovely moments, from the leads and from Shelly as a waitress friend.
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88Serves up an irresistible helping of delicious fun with writing that is tart and sharp and a story infused with sweetness.
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83Waitress is strange and sexy and personal and wonderful -- a weird little slice of pure feeling -- and it's horrible that Shelly never got the chance to see it delight a mass audience.
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83Sweet and sour and sexy.
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80An unassuming treat amid the noisy blockbuster season. It'll melt your heart and any dietary resolve equally.
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80Part feminist fable, part romantic fairy tale, it is by turns tart and sweet, charming and tough, rather like its heroine and like Keri Russell, the plucky, pretty, nimble actress who plays her.
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78The movie doesn't stand in judgment of its characters, which will probably disappoint audiences who think it ought to, but its breezy tone and ultimately affirming message should please comedy fans with an appreciation for the offbeat.
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75This sweetheart of a comedy boasts a hilarious and heartfelt performance by Keri Russell.
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75The ending of Waitress is so beguiling and whimsical that it makes you, like its diner's patrons, hungry for more--and it makes you miss that red-headed movie auteur/pastry chef/heart stealer Shelly even more.
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75There is little trace of tragedy in this warm, refreshing Southern comedy, which is quirky without being idiotic, original despite some familiar developments.
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75Basically, this tale of a pregnant waitress looking for a way out of an unhappy marriage is a funny and touching riff on Martin Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," not to mention its better-known sitcom spinoff, "Alice."
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75Shelly left her daughter - and her audience - a wonderful gift, this movie about the transforming effects of motherhood. Waitress shows how, in giving birth, a woman gives birth to herself - as artist and mother.
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75Waitress isn't a great film, but it is great, deep-dish fun, with a generosity of spirit that extends first to the sisters on the screen and in the audience, then to the rest of humanity.
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75A pleasant dramatic comedy that overcomes its tonal inconsistencies by presenting an engaging lead character with whom its virtually impossible not to empathize.
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75It's an awful shame that Shelly will not be making any more films, but all the more reason to celebrate Waitress now.
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75Waitress is sweet, uneven and, ultimately, a heartbreaker.
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70It's an openhearted picture, an unintentional goodbye that feels more like a beginning than an ending.
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70Washed in a honeyed 1950s glow, Waitress has a mildly puckish way with outlandish baked goods and pert dialogue, but the movie is memorable largely for the contrast between its innocent sweetness and the savagery of its maker's premature death.
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Waitress won't set the world on fire, but it glows.
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70Wise, humble and effortlessly funny.
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70When you watch Waitress, you're also watching a meta-movie about Shelly's brutal end, and the spirit that bursts from every corner of this overcrowded movie is so genuinely warm that trashing it feels like panning a so-so baton-twirling performance at the church talent show.
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70While aspects verge on sitcom terrain, this tale of a pregnant small-town woman caught between a bad marriage and a risky affair is mostly as funny and charming as intended.
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Among the joys here are the supporting players, each with well-defined stories and quirky personalities. Cheryl Hines (HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm") and Shelly play fellow waitresses searching for their own happiness, and good ol' Andy Griffith is memorable as the curmudgeonly diner-owner who takes a shine to Jenna.
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70The film isn't averse to reaching for Hollywood fantasies, but there's a lot of what seems to be hard-earned wisdom here about women in bad marriages.
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67It's an imperfect film, but it's the kind of imperfect film of which it would be nice to have seen Shelly make more.
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63While Shelly's stylized vision and sentimental intentions don't always gel, they do result in a warm, often charming fantasy.
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63Shelly was murdered before she could continue developing as a writer and director, and while this, her last film, is extremely uneven and undermined by an excess of quirk, Keri Russell's performance as a pregnant pie-guru is a charmer with a bracing streak convincingly desperate determination.
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60Full of off-kilter characters who don't talk like anyone in real life, but sound a truthful chord.
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60I think of Waitress as an overstuffed, overcooked pie--too ungainly to eat all of, too generous to pass up, too heartbreaking to contemplate for long.
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60It appears to be a true reflection of her (Shelly) spirit -- eccentric, good-naturedly feminist, kind of funny and kind of sentimental. Despite its realistic setting in a small Southern town, it is much more a fable than it is a slice of authentic life.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 34 out of 50
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Mixed: 6 out of 50
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Negative: 10 out of 50
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