Throughout Waitress we see pies being dreamed up in the mind of Jenna, a waitress and pie maker supreme.  Most of the pies grow out of things that are happening in her life, and are named accordingly, such as “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby Pie” (which gets a bit mellower name, “Bad Baby Pie.”)  The ingredients that go into each pie may be a creative leap, but each, after we see it come together, makes one’s mouth water.

It isn’t often that all the ingredients that make up a film come together in proportions and harmony to make something like Waitress.  The ingredients may not always seem to go together and from time to time we’re a bit surprised at what’s included, but it all comes together perfectly.

The film begins as Jenna discovers she is pregnant.  She’s not happy about this.  She is in an abusive marriage and has been planning her escape.  She is stocking away money to make a trip to a pie bake-off with a prize of $25,000 that she will use to make a new life.  The baby complicates all that. (First ingredient: a look at the plight of abused women.)

When she goes to the obstetrician, he’s young, handsome—and married.  But there is such an attraction between them that they quickly fall into a torrid affair.  (Next ingredient: a love story.)

Jenna doesn’t want this baby, but is going to have it anyway.  She thinks that perhaps her husband Earl has “smothered all the affection out of me.”  Her friends get her a book on motherhood with a place to write letters to the unborn baby.  The first is an apology for not loving the baby.  The tone of the letters (Jenna’s therapy sessions, in reality) rise and fall with her moods, never quite getting tender, but at times even reaching anger.  (Ingredient: introspective look at mother/child relationship.)

Mix all these ingredients with the spice of perfect casting (especially Jeremy Sisto as the abusive Earl, and Andy Griffith as the diner owner and world’s worst customer, Joe), superb writing and spot on acting and you have the makings of a good movie.

What moves it beyond the level of good is the way director and costar Adrienne Shelly does surprising things with these ingredients.  Watching Jenna’s pies come together, she sometimes mashes things, sometimes caresses the chocolate as she stirs it, sometimes just throws things together.  Shelly does much the same things with her ingredients.  For example, the love story is one that we really hope doesn’t work out.  We know that there is just so much wrong with this that it is bound to end in misery.  The love story gets mashed so the other ingredients aren’t overwhelmed by it.

Just as we think we have a story about love or about freedom, a new flavor takes over.  We are asked to consider, not so much love or freedom, but happiness.  And here the film begins to take on its deepest meanings.

Happiness is certainly an important topic in the Bible.  It is what many of the Proverbs point to, as well as much of Ecclesiastes, and much of the teachings of Jesus (The Beatitudes can easily be translated as “Happy are...”)  Jenna discovers that love and freedom are not the goals of her life, but rather ingredients for the happiness that is missing in her life.

We learn late in the film why pies are so important to Jenna and why she expresses herself through them.  When she realizes what she does making pies, she is open for a life that can be filled with love, freedom, and the happiness that they can lead to.

Don’t settle for this slice of “Best Movie I’ve Seen in Quite a While Pie.” Go get the whole pie for yourself.