Jenna (Keri Russell) is a pregnant, unhappily married waitress in the deep south. She meets a newcomer (Nathan Fillion) to her town and falls into an unlikely relationship as a last attempt at happiness.

I am happy to see yet another star of the Felicity cast making a successful transition from small screen to the big screen. Scott Speedman made his success in the Underworld films. Now, Keri Russell is becoming a notable big screen actress with notable performances in Mad About Mambo, Mission Impossible, Upside of Anger, August Rush and of course Waitress.

Waitress is a great movie. Russell’s character Jenna was funny, adorable and sharp as a tack, just how I like my leading ladies. Jenna’s love interest Dr. Pomatter, played by the ever lovable Nathan Fillion (TV’s Firefly), is simply adorable and he and she make the cutest on screen couple. I also love Jenna’s two best freidns and fellow waitresses, Very well acted, written, cast and directed. Russell and Nathan Fillion were just the cutest on screen couple. And I just loved her friends Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelley; also the director and writer of the film). The chemistry between Jenna and her friends and Jenna and her love interest were dead on. I lost myself in the film.

I am a sucker for movies shot in the south with characters with thick southern draws. There is an inherent charm to the south (minus the inherent racism) that translates well on screen. Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes has it. Waitress has it too. Time seems to slow down in a southern small town. And the characters seem so endearing no matter how degenerate, or crazy, or sad, or lonely, or straight-laced or whatever their overriding personality. They’re like the pies Jenna bakes in the film, unique, warm and inviting.

Waitress is a film worth renting and eventually owning on DVD. It’s Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias caliber. One of those films that will become a classic chick-flick that we’ll cherish for years to come, I predict. It’s a true shame that Shelley was killed just after the making of this film. She would have had a formidable career as a director and writer akin to Nora Ephron. She was a great actress, too. Lovely to watch. Nonetheless, Waitress will be her legacy…and I suspect it will win an award or two in 2008.