MovieChat Forums > Waitress (2007) Discussion > Its a MOVIE!

Its a MOVIE!

posted 16 years ago by demiurgiac
2 replies | jump to latest

Every once in a while a perfect movie comes along. This is one of them. Exquisite from start to finish. Not a gratuitous line, not a wasted scene, and the music was nothing less than a perfect fit. I have read several of the negative reviews here. I will never understand how folks can sit through an entire movie such as this little masterpiece and then whine about, and focus on, small and trivial (even technical) detail that is so far from what the movie is really about. The story is not about the doctor, or 'Joe' or anything else. The story is about the complex issues that face a desperate, provincial young woman whose dream of escape seems to be shattered by her unwanted pregnancy. One (negative) reviewer writes "and I don't see her changes as being positive or necessarily believable"... why in the world do they have to be believable? Its a beautiful little morality play portraying imperfect folks (all of us) doing the best they know how with the cards dealt them. Another reviewer writes "DO you realize just how unethical it is to get into a relationship with a patient?" Again... "Its a MOVIE!" Those characters are there to help move our trapped character to a point where she takes charge of her life. Another reviewer takes the time to ask "How much was the check"... my Gawd, how much more can you miss the point of the movie if you take the time to ask questions like that! One last thing. The ending is criticizes more than once. Its a PERFECT ending. She knows she has not 'got it right' when it comes to men (abusive husband, married doctor). So she puts all that on hold and focuses on what she is sure about...her work, her baby. Perfect. Maybe the rest will come later.

[–] lindsey-ann 16 years ago

i agree completely. Every once in a while you find a movie that wasn't just made for money or the box office and that is actually good, and this is that movie. It was great in everyway. I went out and bought it the next day.

[–] owenrcarpenter 15 years ago

'Waitress' is not just a movie. It is a movie of a FAIRY TALE! The film is shot in a naturalistic style, but the resolution is not meant to be 'realistic' in any way, shape or form. Joe is the 'fairy godmother' who saves Jenna from a life of struggle and hardship with the aid of a convenient cheque, the cinematic equivalent of a 'magic wand'. Without it, 'Waitress' would have finished on a much grimmer note with the penniless Jenna facing the struggle of bringing up her daughter alone. It would still have been an unlifting story, because Jenna and her daughter would now have been free from an abusive man, but we would be aware that they both had some real tough times ahead. Joe's cheque liberated them from these financial worries.

On the other points that were made, it may well be extemely unethical for a Doctor to have an affair with a patient, but it is also unethical for a man to beat and rob his pregnat wife. Unethical conduct DOES happen in society, like it or not! As I recall, Nathan Fillion also played a Doctor is 'Desperate Housewives'. This particular member of the medical profession was guilty of sexually abusing a woman who he had placed under anasthetic. If people can accept THIS scenario as 'realistic', I see no problem with believing that a doctor might have a consentual fling with a woman in his care, no matter what the American Medical Association regulations might say!