Z/Web

Author: Adrienne Shelly

Director: Adrienne Shelly

Impressive film — so sad this is the final one writer/director Shelly’s career (she was murdered in late 2006). She’s created some fascinating characters, so simple and elegant we see them with all their flaws and fall in love with them anyway. Warning: don’t see this film when you’re hungry. The title is puzzling since it’s more about pie-making than waitressing. The main character, played by a wonderfully adorable Keri Russell, is a waitress at a little pie diner, who almost creates unusual pie concoctions which serve as the film’s core. She’s married to an abusive, controlling husband and when she discovers she’s pregnant, she’s depressed because she now feels really trapped because with a baby she’ll never be able to leave her husband. Then she foolishly falls into an affair with her new male doctor, and though we’re shaking our head, knowing this is wrong (she would agree with us), we still sympathize with her and understand and are actually pleased she’s found at least a glimmer of happiness. The film tells a simple story beautifully and wraps everything nicely in a somewhat predictable but agreeable ending. Surprisingly profound at times, this is a film that doesn’t try to be more than it is, completely unlike most films today. Highly recommended.

I forgot to mention, last week I uploaded some pictures from my recent hike on the Oregon coast. Check them out here.

This is a predictable but really well-done romantic film about two single women on the rebound, one in L.A. and one in England, who swap houses over Christmas to get away from their lives. Predictably, they each find someone new and fall in love, but the story’s pitch perfect, with just the right lines and gestures, that we’re swept along anyway. I did appreciate the side-story of the old Hollywood writer getting his life revived by the English girl visiting L.A. — that was extremely cool. Overall, nothing revolutionary here, a paint-by-numbers romantic comedy, but so well done it’s pleasing. Above average.