In a small town in the American South, Jenna Hunterson has only one thing on her mind and that is pie. Jenna finds herself day dreaming and creating new pies all day to keep her distracted from her abusive husband, Earl and come to find out an unwanted pregnancy. It’s at Joe’s Diner, where Jenna works that she finds out she’s pregnant with the support of her coworkers Becky and Dawn. At this moment in her life Jenna has came to the conclusion that having a baby is not something to be celebrated because she realizes that she’ll never get away from Earl, but soon her life completely changes when she meets Jim Pomatter her new OBGYN doctor who just moved to the small town with his wife.

Autonomy is a huge theme through out the entire film. From the get-go Jenna is constantly being ordered around and can’t make any decisions for herself even up until the very end of the movie. The only thing she has self control over is the pies that she creates in her head.  When Jenna finds out she’s having an unwanted pregnancy she immediately starts to create a pie in her head called “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby” Pie which she describes as a quiche with egg, brie cheese, and a smoked ham center. That imagination is quickly and abruptly interrupted by her boss Cal at Joe’s Diner saying that there are customers that need served.

[marshmellow mermaid pie, One of Jenna’s personal creations]. Retrieved April 29, 2019 from https://chindeep.com/2017/03/22/marshmallow-mermaid-pie/

Jenna has absolutely no say in any decisions that need to be made when it comes to her abusive husband Earl. Earl routinely picks up Jenna every single day from work and in one of the first scene that we meet Earl he demands the money that Jenna made at work that day. In the same scene you learn quickly that Jenna lacks any autonomy when it comes Earl and as he rambles selfishly on, you can see Jenna’s imagination start to wander as she starts creating a new pie which is described in this scene:

“I Hate My Husband” Pie. You make it with bittersweet chocolate and don’t sweeten it. You make it into a pudding and drown it in caramel… (6:50)

A very important reoccurring thought for Jenna is the pie contest. We first hear about the pie contest early on when Jenna and Earl are sitting at the dinner table and are having a conversation over spaghetti pie. Jenna tries to seduce Earl by showering him with compliments and then says that she’d love to borrow some money from Earl so she can attend a pie contest with the first prize winner winning $25,000. This would be Jenna’s escape from Earl, but Earl immediately shoots down the idea and even says that Jenna’s pies are just good, but aren’t great and that she has a duty to take care of Earl her “loving husband”. Later on in the film Jenna packs a suitcase and has plans to go to the  pie contest, but her taste for escape is cut short when Earl shows up at the bus stop, forces Jenna back into the car and beats her.

[Earl] . Retrieved April 29, 2019 from http://shamelesspile.blogspot.com/2016/01/movie-review-waitress.html

Another prevalent theme in the film is social class. Jenna being a white female and could be perceived as a middle class citizen although that is nowhere near the case. Because of the abusive and controlling relationship with her husband, she is not allowed a car and typically takes the bus to work every single day. This ensures Earl that she can never escape him.

An important relationship that we see portrayed throughout the film is the relationship between Jenna and a customer named Joe which just so happens to be a wealthy business owner and owner of Joe’s Diner. Out of all the businesses that Joe owns he claims that Joe’s Diner is by far his favorite. You can see the major differences in social class depicted between Joe and Jenna. Joe throughout the film comes off as entitled, bossy, but successful business owner and an example of this is seen when Joe confronts Jenna outside of Joe’s Diner while she’s creating new pies in her head. He interrupts the daydreaming by asking “Do you have a home?!”. Jenna is startled and confused initially, but when she questions Joe what he means, he replies “I’m wondering if you have to sleep outside my diner ’cause maybe you have no home.”. Later on in the film after Jenna has her baby, Jenna receives a letter from Joe telling her to go after her dreams and that it’s never too late with the addition of a check worth $270,450.

[Joe and Jenna]. Retrieved April 29, 2019 from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/waitress

Another example reflecting the differences in social class is shown within the personal lives of coworkers Becky and Dawn. Becky and Dawn are also hard working waitresses, but have way more resources than Jenna. Becky is even in an unhappy marriage herself, but claims it’s nowhere near as bad as the relationship that Jenna and her husband have. Becky and Dawn are Jenna’s support throughout her pregnancy because for a large portion of the time Jenna keeps the pregnancy a secret from Earl because with that knowledge, Jenna would never be able to escape the abuse. In one scene the girls have just gotten off their shift and are waiting with Jenna for her to picked up by Earl and after some discussions of their personal lives and social class and after Jenna has been picked up, Dawn states:

“I don’t care if she’s a pie genius, I wouldn’t trade places with her.” (5:26)

The third most noticeable theme throughout the film is gender roles. Although being a waitress is her job, Jenna is seen being ordered around and treated differently because of her gender. In one of the scenes with Jenna and Cal, her boss, you can see based off of his tone and physical appearance that he believes he is superior to her. Jenna asks Cal why there isn’t just one nice thing he could say to her other than “don’t you have customers?”, “get out of the kitchen”, and “get back to work” in which replies, “don’t you have customers, get out of the kitchen, get back to work”.

It isn’t until Jenna meets her new OBGYN, Jim Pomatter where the gender roles seem to balance and there is no superiority. Jim’s personal moral and relationship with Jenna allows her to see that the concept of genders is on a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum she lives a life where because she’s the wife she cooks, takes care of her husband, and has absolute no control of her life, but on the other end Jenna starts an affair with Dr. Pomatter and she realizes that she does have control and power in some aspects of her life.

After Jenna gives birth to her beautiful baby girl Lulu, Jenna becomes so infatuated with the life she has just produced and that’s when she realizes that she doesn’t need Earl or Dr. Pomatter. The gender roles immediately switch and Jenna’s whole demeanor changes and it starts by Jenna saying she’s getting a divorce from Earl and then kindly breaks the affair off with Dr. Pomatter. Jenna then goes on to owning her own pie shop named “Lulu’s”, winning first place at the pie contest, and living her life by her own rules. It is seen towards the end that there is more color prevalent, Jenna is smiling consistently, and she’s happy with her baby and friends Dawn and Becky which was the “cherry on top”.

[Jim Pomatter]. Retrieved April 29, 2019 from http://shamelesspile.blogspot.com/2016/01/movie-review-waitress.html.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film and think that the transition and portrayal of Jenna was executed perfectly. I liked the story line although I wish the film went more into depth in Jenna’s relationship with her mom and where the original spark and inspiration of pie making came to be. There was only a few mentions of Jenna’s mom and how Jenna’s inspiration of naming the pie’s she creates all came from her mom. Jenna also tells Jim Pomatter that he reminds her of her mom and that he is her best friend. Other than that, there is a slight indirect reference to Jenna’s mom towards the end of the film where she is seen holding her daughter and singing a song her mom used to sing when she was making pies. Overall, it was a great film and I give it 10/10 stars.

 

Works Cited

Cylinder, Graduated. “Shameless Pile of Stuff: Movie Review: Waitress.” Shameless Pile of Stuff, 7 Jan. 2016,    http://shamelesspile.blogspot.com/2016/01/movie-review-waitress.html.

King, T., Rose, J., Roiff, M. (Producers) & Shelly, A. (Director). (2007). Waitress [Motion Picture]. United

States:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

“Marshmallow Mermaid Pie.” ChinDeep, 22 Mar. 2017, https://chindeep.com/2017/03/22/marshmallow-    mermaid-pie/.

Waitress (2007). www.rottentomatoes.com, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/waitress. Accessed 29 Apr. 2019.