Film

Set in the most comprehensively clichéd small Southern town ever unimagined, Waitress stars Russell as Jenna, a good-hearted waitress who also bakes the pies in the diner where she and one-dimensional coworkers Hines and Shelly sling banter and comfort food to drawling local yokels.

Jenna is unhappily married to an abusive, controlling redneck inevitably named Earl (Sisto). Earl, for all his abusive, controlling redneck ways, can only get sex from Jenna by getting her drunk. When one of these rare encounters leaves her pregnant, she resolves to run away as soon as she wins a large cash prize in a regional pie-baking championship.

Preparing for the bake-off, Jenna invents pies with names like “I Hate My Husband Pie” and “Earl Murders Me Because I’m Having an Affair Pie.” The inspiration for the latter concoction is her handsome married ob-gyn (Fillion), whose requited passion for Jenna greatly complicates her escape plan. She’d barely know what to do without the sympathetic counsel of her curmudgeonly boss, Old Joe (Griffith), whose crusty exterior conceals a heart as sweet as coconut cream.

Essentially a king-size serving of sitcom, Waitress might please particularly ardent fans of that genre.