Hey everyone. Caponein Chicago here.
WAITRESS
In late 1996 (this would predate my time with Ain't It Cool News), I was basking in what may have been my first- or second-ever Chicago International Film Festival. I went to an ill-attended screening of a little indie work called SUDDEN MANHATTAN, the feature debut from the film's writer, director and star, Adrienne Shelly. The only reason I went to see this movie was because I had a mad crush on Shelly, who had charmed me with the neurotic, put-upon characters she played in Hal Hartley's THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH and TRUST. She popped up with some amount of frequency in a handful of independent films, but nothing really captured what I loved most about her as those early Hartley works, but that didn't stop me from searching high and low for every film I could get my hands on in which she starred.
When SUDDEN MANHATTAN played at the Chicago festival, it screened at a sort of run-down older theater in the city that has since closed its doors. I went to support Shelly's work, but mainly to see her on the big screen again. Little did I know that Adrienne would show up to the screening for a loose and informal Q&A that ended up feeling more like a handful of friends in someone's living room than a structured, impersonal event. The discussion in the theater led to a smaller group of us (about five, including Shelly) heading down the street to a nearby pub and continuing to talk for another hour about Chicago, New York, Hartley and the pains it took her to get her film made. That was my only personal encounter with Shelly; I'm not claiming any friendship with her or deep connection as a result of this conversation. But when I heard that she was murdered last November, well, I didn't take it well. What bothered me most was that nobody I talked to about her death seemed to even know who she was, and that's a terrible shame that I suspect will be rectified by the film she was finishing up when she died, WAITRESS, a dazzling, deeply felt work that draws its strength from an absolutely transcendent performance by star Keri Russell, and the sure-handed pen and eye of writer-director Shelly.
My exposure to Russell as a leading actress is limited. I never watched "Felicity," and her performances in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and THE UPSIDE OF ANGER were small enough that I couldn't really judge her talents adequately. WAITRESS changes all of that and almost drop kicks her into a new world of possibilities as a gifted actress with an undercurrent of humor and maturity that makes her perfect for just about any kind of role, be it dramatic, comedic or anything in between, which is where this film rests. Russell plays Jenna, a waitress at a pie diner in a stiflingly small town who has the uncanny gift of inventing some of the universe's greatest pie recipes on a daily basis. She's married to a real shit named Earl (Jeremy Sisto), whose jealousy and insensitivity knows no limits. Her best friends are her fellow waitresses, played with great enthusiasm by Cheryl Hines as Becky (a slightly dialed-back version of Flo from the TV show "Alice") and Shelly, as the mousy Dawn. The owner of the diner is Joe, played in a wonderfully frank, honest and funny performance by Andy Griffith.
Jenna's inner thoughts (in the form of letters to her unborn baby) serve as our narration through her struggle to escape her marriage, but her plans sound more like pipe dreams since Earl keeps all the money and controls all aspects of their lives. Her dream is to invent a pie that can win her $25,000 at a pie contest, but Earl won't let her even consider the dream, despite the fact that they could clearly use the cash. Her life gets just a little bit worse when she discovers she's pregnant, a fact she never really embraces, as is evidenced by one of her pie creations, the "I Don't Want Earl's Baby" pie (she names her delicacies after the frame of mind she's in when she invents them). Jenna goes to her OB/GYN to confirm the bad news, when she discovers her long-time doctor is gone, replaced by the young, good-looking, quirky Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion).
WAITRESS doesn't have an agenda or message beyond "Do what's best for you," nor does it have a conventional plot. This is a healthy slice-of-life serving filled with delicious amounts of interesting characters, sometimes difficult character choices, and loads of charm and sass. Some may be put off by Jenna's constant anger at very existence of her unborn child, but I just found it funny that Shelly was gutsy enough as a screenwriter to write a character who would normally think of such an event as a blessing and turn it around into something truly unwanted. Jenna keeps the pregnancy from Earl for a while, but when he finds out, he makes her promise him that she won't love the baby more than him. It's a creepy scene, and underscores Earl's insecurities better than simply having him be physically abusive.
A love affair begins between Jenna and her doctor, and even that doesn't play out the way I thought it would. I kept waiting for the big confrontation when Earl finds out his wife is cheating, but Shelly doesn't make things that predictable. In fact, for a film, featuring characters that could easily have been made obvious and canned, Waitress surprised me more than once, sometimes with small decisions or actions, sometimes with its candor, and sometimes with its emotional depth. Don't fall for the cutesy ads you see for this film, because there's a lot going on here besides tasty-looking pies and romantic-comedy clichés.
I whole-heartedly adore this film, but I don't want you to think it's because of Shelly's passing. It's the kind of work that manages to be both a crowd pleaser, while still being a little devious and off-color. What saddens me about the work is that it would have clearly opened up many doors for Shelly as a writer and director. She would have been a likely candidate for the next big wave of romantic comedies, and Hollywood might have appreciated her slightly more cynical view of love, while never missing an opportunity to make us laugh. It's this lost potential that comes with Shelly's death that gets me now that I've seen WAITRESS. She clearly had great stories to tell and fascinating characters to introduce us to, especially her female characters. Jenna is one of the most fully realized women I've seen in the movies in years. But you shouldn't go for any of these reasons; go because this movie is full of life, conviction, spirit and humor. Shelly made the best movie of her career, and we're all the better for it.
AWAY FROM HER
In many ways, it seems wholly appropriate that I'm reviewing this film alongside Adrienne Shelly's WAITRESS. Both were made by established actresses whose first features as directors are so solid and impressive that it almost makes you fear that we may lose a life in front of the camera for a life and career behind it. In the case of AWAY FROM HER, the actress behind the camera is Sarah Polley, and the thing that is most shocking about her first film is that this 28-year-old, relatively newly married woman has perfectly captured the lives of a long-married elderly couple about to enter the final chapter in their lives when one of them begins showing signs of early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Polley establishes a level of knowing and maturity about memory and history that makes it impossible not to marvel at her skills. Some of this may come from the film's source material (the Alice Munro short story "The Bear Came over the Mountain"), but there is also a level of contemplation and reflection that even the likes of Ingmar Bergman didn't discover until much later in his career.
The couple in question is played by the beautiful-as-ever Julie Christie and Canadian acting icon Gordon Pinsent as Fiona and Grant, one of those perfect couples who have almost never been apart for more than a day or two. Both are fiercely independent and exceptionally intelligent, but they also are deeply in love and can't stand not being together. But soon Fiona's short-term memory begins to fade, and one day she strays from their country home into the snow and forgets how to get home. Gordon finds her hours later wandering the streets, freezing. Lest you start thinking that this movie is about a woman suffering from Alzheimer's, it's not — not entirely at least. This is more Grant's tale, about how a man so deeply committed to his wife has to learn to let go of her despite the fact that she is still very much alive. After the couple decides that Fiona should move into a high-end, extended-care facility, the work begins. The hospital administrator (Wendy Crewson) says that once Fiona is moved in, Grant cannot come visit her for 30 days, in an effort to get Fiona established in her new surroundings.
When they are reunited, things have already changed. Fiona has latched on to another patient, the almost silent Aubrey (Michael Murphy), as sort of a stand-in caretaker to him. She recognizes Grant, but seems to focus on the more negative events in their past, including some past betrayal from his years as a university professor. Polley doesn't rely on flashbacks in AWAY FROM HER. In fact, the brief glimpses we get of Fiona and Grant in younger days are just that: glimpses, flashes of two people in love. Instead, Polley saves her chronological trickery for more modern-day scenes, in which Grant is seen talking to another woman, Marian (Olympia Dukakis), about some incident at the home. We soon realize that she is Aubrey's wife, and that something clearly happened at the facility between Aubrey and Fiona that forced Marian to bring him back home.
But this is no elderly mystery story. It's merely an excuse to have us follow Grant as he visits Fiona on an almost daily basis. Rather then spend time with her, he often sits at the opposite end of the room, watching her from a distance. He also spends a great deal of time talking to one of the nurses on staff played by the astonishingly convincing Kristen Thomson, a Canadian theatre actress whom I've never seen before, but would relish the chance to do so again. She's so authentic in the role that I thought Polley had hired a real nurse with some acting inspirations. She tries to help Grant understand what Fiona is going through, and is sometimes critical of the facility's strict policies. But her story is just as interesting as anyone else's in the film, and I missed her when she wasn't on screen.
Each encounter between Grant and Fiona becomes increasingly uncomfortable and unsettling for us, as well as them. They don't have anything in common any longer, and the one thing they held most dear about their relationship -- their ability to communicate -- is now disintegrating before their eyes. Christie's work here is extraordinary. If this film had come out late last year, her Oscar nomination would have been a sure thing. Over the course of the film, the far-away, glassy look in her eye becomes more and more pronounced, and it breaks our collective hearts every time we see her. Meanwhile, Grant finds a great deal of common ground with Marian, and the two begin dating unapologetically. It's all part of the moving-on process.
How someone as young as Polley could have made a film about these characters and experiences seems hard to contemplate, but if you know a little something about her history (particularly her mother's death when Polley was 11), it maybe doesn't seem so out of character. In all her roles (from Atom Egoyan's THE SWEET HEREAFTER to MY LIFE WITHOUT ME to the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake), Polley always struck me as a young woman with an old soul. She has simply never disappointed me as a performer, and I'm pleased to report that her first feature in no way let me down either. This is a marvelous love story, a tale of mourning the living, and a chronicle of being forced at an older age to face the fact that your vision of yourself as part of an elderly couple growing old together by the fireplace drinking tea isn't going to happen. New chapters of a person's life don't stop being written just because you get gray hair, and AWAY FROM HER reminds us of that sometimes terrifying fact with a grace and dignity that is easy to embrace. This is a lovely work from a gifted filmmaker whose range of talents are just now coming to light.
Capone
