DVD Traffic Report: November 27, 2023

Waitress takes on an unavoidable added poignancy when you know the story behind it. (Actress Adrienne Shelly, a staple of the New York indie film scene since the late 1980s, was poised for a breakthrough as a director with this romantic dramedy. After the film was completed but before its Sundance premiere, Shelly was murdered in Greenwich Village. Waitress therefore plays as valedictory — a gently feminist celebration of love, life and motherhood.) Keri Russell stars as a great waitress and pie-maker stuck in a bad marriage (to a scruffy, clueless Jeremy Sisto). She falls for her gynecologist (Nathan Fillion) and struggles toward independence. Russell carries the film pretty well, and the deadpan Fillion (Serenity, Slither) is an odd but endearing choice as her romantic foil. The men in the film are completely out of focus, anyway, except for Andy Griffith (!), who appears in several scenes playing a creaky old plot device. The biggest problem is that you’ve seen this story many times before — woman with bad marriage and spunky friends finds the courage to make a new start. If this sounds like your idea of a good time, relax and enjoy.