I wanted to watch Sara Bareilles’s musical play Waitress but did not have the luck in finding it. I found the movie on which the play was based instead — and I friggin’ love it.
To be honest, I did not have great expectations for it because I initially judged it as another chick flick movie where the woman finds her worth, redemption, or happiness after meeting the man of her dreams.
I wanted to stop watching it for the first few minutes it played but I carried on watching because I was just so bored. What sparked my interest to finish it was when the protagonist Jenna, while pregnant — shared to her friends that motherhood is not for everyone and that she respects the baby and its right to thrive but she just doesn’t have any affection for it. Imagining myself being in her shoes, I think I would feel the same way, and that’s what probably got me.
The movie was about the journey of a skillful pregnant waitress in asserting to people in her life and the world what it is that she truly wants and eventually fulfilling her dream of establishing her own pie shop while making sure she got her baby taken cared of. That’s amidst a very tumultuous relationship she had with her selfish, controlling, and immature husband, her short-lived affair with her doctor, and the inherent challenges she had as a pregnant woman.
I loved this movie because it reminds me of my mom’s story when she was pregnant with me. Well, not all of its parts but just enough to make me relive the stories she told me.
What I like most about the movie is that there’s so much humanness in the roles portrayed in each of the characters such as the following:
A pregnant woman who was scared of having a baby because she knows she and her husband could not provide the baby a safe place and emotional space to live in.
A controlling, selfish, and immature man who was just insecure about losing someone whom he considers his only possession and only love.
A wife who had a long, stable but lifeless marriage and found an adventure in having an affair with her boss, due to the novelty it brings into her life.
An old man who gives advice to a younger woman to start anew and fulfill her dreams because he did not want her to have the same frustrations and unfulfilled dreams he had.
and so on…
But don’t raise your eyebrows, pretty please.
This is me not saying that I support what the characters in the movie did. This is me acknowledging that what the characters felt and did — do happen in real life. And I like it that the roles portrayed are not far removed from the kind of humans we typically encounter or know about in reality.
Overall, I really enjoyed watching this movie. It made me cry in some of its parts, actually.
As a woman, I just can’t help but feel the frustrations, struggles, fears, and confusion of the main character (Jenna) on a visceral level. It was easy for me to relate and empathize with her. I also love the fact that she was able to reach her dreams in life and seemed fulfilled even without a man on her side.
This might be a very bias review, for all I care.
If you end up watching it or if you had watched it, I would love to hear what you think about it too!
๐๐ข๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ฌ | half ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ, half ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข 