Writer/director/actor Adrienne Shelly’s final film is a real charmer and a fitting legacy to this indie filmmaker whose work was finally getting some notice. Tragically, Shelly was murdered in Manhattan on November 1, 2006, months from the January 2007 Sundance Film Festival’s screening of “Waitress.” Since 1994, Shelly had written and directed six films, with “Waitress” clearly her breakout project, evidenced by the strong cast of Keri Russell, Jeremy Sisto and Cheryl Hines. That she was able to coax Andy Griffith out of retirement also speaks well of her quirky, honest script.   

Knowing the sad events of Shelley’s violent death initially adds a bittersweet edge to the screening of this heartfelt film but it is notable that the strength of the strong performances—including Shelly’s¾and the story’s offbeat humor transcend this sadness. That Shelly has left something tangibly worthwhile to film history is a comfort.  

Set in a small town in the southern U.S., “Waitress” at first is reminiscent of many previous diner sagas that recount the camaraderie of the hard-working women who keep the coffee coming, and somehow find love along the way. Ellen Burnstyn in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and its TV series spin-off, Bridget Fonda in “It Could Happen to You,” Michelle Pfieffer in “Frankie and Johnny,” Marisa Tomei in “Untamed Heart” – all come to mind. As well, we recall the ensemble casts of “Mystic Pizza” and “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.”  

But “Waitress” corners the market with its spunky heroine’s talent for baking the perfect pie for every occasion. There’s a ‘Mermaid Pie,’ ‘I Hate My Husband Pie,’ ‘Falling in Love Pie’ and even ‘Earl’s Gonna Murder Me ‘Cause I’m Having an Affair Pie.’ As the ingredients are fast-forwarded into a fresh crust ¾ via an overhead camera shot ¾with Jenna’s (“Felicity”’s Keri Russell) narration, we realize that her culinary talents are a sort of homespun therapy. With an enviable aplomb, she works out the troubles of her bad marriage to Earl, her unwanted pregnancy and her burgeoning attraction to her physician by whipping up a pie. That twist—and the style in which it is executed ¾ are at once endearing, amusing and highly original.  

Bolstered by her two best buddies—the worldly-wise Becky (“Curb Your Enthusiam”’s Cheryl Hines) and the wide-eyed innocent Dawn (Adrienne Shelly), Jenna’s life has reached a crossroads. She is pregnant, a mistake that she ruefully attributes to alcohol. Her possessive, temperamental husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto) demands her weekly paycheck and freaks when she isn’t home right after work. He endlessly blows the horn on his car while waiting for Jenna to leave the diner. And in a creepy turnabout, Earl even begs Jenna to vow to love him more than their expected baby. “Earl has become the man I feared,” Jenna narrates nonchalantly—and we believe her.  

There isn’t any self-pity in the characterization of Jenna and that is admirably refreshing. Her reaction to her bad luck is stoicism, hell-bent on change, as she secretly stashes money away to finance her escape from the dreaded Earl. Her friendship with crabby Old Joe—the diner’s owner, played with resourceful feistiness by Andy Griffith—proves to be her salvation, as he wisely counsels her to “start fresh.” Their playfully combative banter is a delight and it is remarkable to see the 80 year-old Andy Griffith back onscreen.  

Indeed, it is the unexpected turns in the dialogue and storyline that makes “Waitress” as original as one of Jenna’s pie concoctions. Her affair with Dr. Pomatter is hilarious in its impetuousness and the unabashed manner in which she persists in calling him “Dr. Pomatter,” despite their intimacies. She rationalizes her infidelity by countering that she wanted “a little adventure after years of nothing.”  

There is much to like in this refreshing little movie. It features a tough, no-nonsense heroine, who ultimately decides that she needs no man to “save” her. Movies with admirable female characters are scarce sometimes—Jenna is a winner. And as Jenna sings to her newborn baby—“Gonna Make Me a Pie with a Heart in the Middle” (written by Adrienne Shelly and Andrew Hollander)—we know she will be just fine.