MovieChat Forums > Waitress (2007) Discussion > Very much an acquired taste.

Very much an acquired taste.

posted 12 years ago by PurpleProseOfCairo
5 replies | jump to latest

***Slight Spoilers***

I have an awful lot of unwatched DVDs and usually have a lot of recorded TV shows to watch too, so I don't have much patience when it comes to switching stuff off after a few minutes. I was going to switch this off after a short while, but I'm glad I didn't. Not because it was amazing, but it WAS a curious mix of genuine emotion and twee, patronising blather.

When it started I thought "Alice-style diner girls with hearts of gold talking in obligatory Southern drawls". The pie motif annoyed me, and some of the pies looked downright disgusting, which was off-putting.

Then I realised you have to switch to a certain mindset - it had surreal elements not to be taken at face value, like the stilted way of talking (particularly between Jenna and the Doc). There's a really shocking moment between Earl and Jenna that really knocks all the "twee" out of it for a while, but probably the worst aspect of it is the depiction of Ogie - a borderline retarded Pee Wee Herman character with excruciating lines and mannerisms. That Adrienne's character would fall for him is either unbelievable or puts her in the "retarded" camp too.

It overdoses on saccharine at the end - perhaps deliberately? All those pastel colours and the mother and child walking into the sunset? I wonder whether we're meant to believe everything really IS that sweet.

In the end I barely kept my head above the syrup and thought it a worthwhile movie.

Awight we're The Daamned we're a punk baand and this is called Carn't Be Appy T'day!

[–] owenrcarpenter 12 years ago

I couldn't agree with you less about the relationship between Dawn and Ogie. I found this story of a lonely, self-hating woman being rescued from her isolation by an honourable and devoted man to be truly heart-warming. Ogie is an excrutiatingly bad poet, but he truly loves Dawn and is not deterred even after she rejects him in the most cruel and and humiliating manner.

Eventually, Dawn relents and begins to see herself through Ogie's eyes, as a woman who is beautiful within and without, and who is truly deserving of love. The relationship betwwen Dawn and Ogie is the only truly heathly one in the entire film, and Ogie, with his fierce romanticism, is the most sympathetic character in the film - male or female.

[–] Paynebyname 12 years ago

It's a little disturbing that someone would think Ogie's character sympathetic.

The characters obsession with Dawn and his refusal to take no for an answer borders on, and surpasses, harassment and makes for uncomfortable viewing. He is weird, he acts weird and his clingy, overly earnest attention are clear red flags for future relationship discord.

But what message does the movie offer. Just keeping on going, persistence pays off and if you wear someone down eventually they'll succumb. Almost implying that No means Yes. Another example of poor writing and unlikeable characters.

www.paynebyname.com

[–] crimekittehs 12 years ago

I object to the use of the word retarded to describe Ogie. That's a bit ignorant and disrespectful to mentally disabled people.

Ogie was more unhinged. In real life you would get in trouble for bothering a girl that much. It's movies like these that give guys bad ideas. This kind of persistence does not pay off in real life when it comes to dating.

Also, in real life somebody as hot as Adrienne Shelley would have her pick of men.

But I feel like this movie was meant to be over-the-top and kind of surreal. Only because her earlier films were almost fully surreal. I don't know if she executed it in the best way, it was too on the border of a mainstream film and some over the top parody. I feel like she should have gone all the way with the fairy tale aspect.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] huwdj 10 years ago

I didn't find it a comfortable film to watch because it seemed to have such a jumble of themes it refuses to fit neatly in to a category. The unhappy, almost violent marriage vs the saccharine Andy Griffin story line vs etc etc. Also it had several actors I generally like but in this film - that I think was supposed to be at least partly romcom - I just didn't like any of the characters.
Maybe I just need to watch it again sometime ?