MovieChat Forums > Waitress (2007) Discussion > wife-beating is funny.

wife-beating is funny.

posted 16 years ago by seldom_gets_credit
9 replies | jump to latest

NOT.

I wanted to give this film the benefit of the doubt, but I had trouble getting over three mental hurdles.

FIRST:

There was odd bipolar writing I thought. It was a folksy humor piece at times with funny moments when she's thinking up unusual pies or self-narrating her "dear baby" and "dear d@mn baby" journal writings. Funny stuff there.

But then Earl is a closed-fisted wifebeater which just jars the whole mood and seems to be there only to justify how quickly and casually she flings herself into the affair with the doctor. Of course she should have left Earl long ago, he's an awful person, etc, yes yes. But it was as if the writers had to make Earl a complete evil entity in order to justify her motivation for "playing doctor".

SECOND:

The casual jumping into bed with each other was unsettling.

THIRD:

The ending was lame. This is a compound item including:

A.) The deus ex machina to wrap up the troubles in the end in the form of Old Joe leaving the business to her in his will so its like she wins the lottery all of a sudden.

B.) The one confrontation with Earl suddenly humbles and neutralizes him forever somehow --this longterm brawler and bully. And it seemed like Earl was still in town and could just show up at the pie-spot with a weapon any time --but no all happy sunshine and bright colors after the one confrontation. Hollywood miracle.

C.) The doctor seems to be in town still too, but there's no more of that action going on either after such closeness? Holllllywood.

D.) This is tiny, but in the pile-up of lameness at the end it added to the load : sooooo the pie-spot is in a location SO isolated that in the end momma and little girl can just merrily wander home down the middle of a gravel lane, but there is also sufficient traffic to keep the business packed and hopping with customers?

Okay other than all that, I liked this film. The ABCD above shaved off points though. 6/10.

~
My vote-list:
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=12592444

[–] MollyWobbles6093 16 years ago

I agree COMPLETELY with everything you said, seldom_gets_credit. You have just pointed out everything that caused me to rate this movie fairly poorly - oddly enough, a 6/10 as well.

By the way, who else saw Old Joe's death and subsequent leaving the restaraunt/money to Jenna coming as soon as he mentioned something about his liver surgery? Like, a mile and a half away?

-MattsGirl6093, Wife to NinjaMatt3628 since 25 February 2009

[–] Joan_of_Snark 16 years ago

It was supposed to be a fairy tale.

[–] piroguie 16 years ago

It's a fairy-tale, not a realist movie.

[–] microbit 16 years ago

I disagree with your Deus Ex Machina statement.

To qualify as such, the plot needs to be be stuck - and then forced in another direction. This is not the case in Waitress. Eg. while dancing with Joe, he back then already states "This life will kill you, start fresh". Several more references are made to converge into Joe's actions near the end of the movie.
This, IMO, does not qualify whatsoever as Deus Ex Machina.

DEM irritates me a lot more in all the "super hero" movies where the 'invincible' hero always somehow manages to have a weakness or some such to be exploited by the villain. Without that weakness the plot is hopelessly stuck before it ever begins. Now _that's_ DEM. (ie. Spiderman, Superman et al). These 'superhero' movies are pathetic in that regard, but they're still enormously entertaining !!

The other compound statements actually are salient, but I consider this a 'chick flick', so it never stopped me from really loving this movie - still a solid 8.

[–] Katz5 16 years ago

Thanks for pointing out these problem areas.

(SPOILERS HEREIN): I liked the movie (probably gave it a 7 out of 10), mainly because of the acting. I was thinking the same thing about Earl--when Jenna walks down the road with her toddler at the end, I half-expected Earl to show up in his car and try to run them down. His sociopathic character belonged in a movie like "Sling Blade," not what's supposedly a "lightweight fairy tale."

Dude means nice guy. Dude means a regular sort of person.

[–] There_Is_No_Sayid 16 years ago

Wife beating isn't funny but Earl wasn't supposed to be a funny character. The only funny bit in their relationship was when he's having sex with her and he says "Say something sexy" and she replies "What do you want me to say?" and he immediately has an orgasm. The rest of it isn't meant to be funny.

The TRUE Hero of Lost:
http://tinyurl.com/by5gwr

[–] freetomato 16 years ago

You nailed it. I really wanted to like this movie and you articulated the things that bothered me too. One more thing bothered me - I find it hard to believe that Jenna and Earl would have a baby with flaxen blond hair. They couldn't find a baby that actually looked like it might have been fathered by Jeremy S?

[–] owenrcarpenter 15 years ago

The OP is quite correct, wife-beating is not funny. Neither is warfare, neither is genocide. Yet the BBC has made comedy series set in the trenches of the Great War (Ben Elton's 'Blackadder Goes Forth') and the concentration camps of Nazi Germany (Jack Pulman's 'Private Shultz') to great acclaim. It is HOW this material is dealt with that makes the difference. At no point were the audience expected to find Earl's violence towards Jenna amusing. The comedy came from the efforts of her and those around her to cope with the awful situation that she found herself in.

Another poster said that a charcter as dark as Earl did not belong in a film meant to be a 'fairy-tale'. Has this person ever read any fairy-tales? If so, they would quickly find that the average fairy-tale is very dark indeed. It must be remembered that the original stories were NOT meant for children! If we view 'Waitress' as a fairy-tale, it is hardly surprising that Earl just 'vanished' after Jenna threw him out. Earl vanishes at the end of the film in the same way that the wicked witch or the demon king 'vanishes' at the end of the story. Does not the phrase "and they were never seen again" ring any bells?

Finally, to address the poster who said it was 'unconvincing' that a man as dark as Earl could father a child as fair as Lulu, I suggest that they watch the film again. If they check the closing credits they will find that Lulu was played by Sophie Ostroy, Adrienne Shelly's real-life daughter. Shelly's husband Andy Ostroy also apppears briefly in the film as the 'cake-man' making a delivery. I think that the poster will find that is every bit as dark as Jeremy Sisto, if not more so.

[–] Posh_babe 10 years ago

I agree with the OP.

Normally the "heroine" doesn't have affairs with married men, and, if they do it's
if both are in unhappy relationships.

We see nothing of Nathan Fillion's character until the end when his wife is with him at Jenna's hospital bedside and she loves her husband, is proud of him and they obviously have a great relationship.

While Jenna may have had some excuse to cheat, he certainly didn't. He's supposed to be a nice guy who cares about her but what about his wife? We never see any guilt on his part so he can't be that great can he?

There was nothing to stop Jenna leaving and divorcing her husband, it's not like the 1910's. When he hit her she could easily have gone to the police.

Stupid plot.