by Diana Zahuranec

Pie is more than just a dessert in Waitress. In this 2007 film directed by Adrienne Shelly, Keri Russell stars as Jenna, the waitress of the title and a pie-making genius. For all the parts pie plays, it might as well be a main character. It’s a symbol of traditional American culture, a mediator of power, and a catalyst of action.

Jenna is trapped in an abusive marriage with Earl (Jeremy Sisto) and waitresses at Joe’s Pie Diner in a southern American small town. Spoiler alert The film follows Jenna through her struggle with an unwanted pregnancy, an unhappy marriage, an affair with her physician Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion), and finally the beginning of a new chapter in her life. Pie is a sweet presence in Jenna’s journey from Scene One to the end.

The beginning shots of Waitressroll with close-ups of sweet batter poured into a pan, apple slices tossed with bare

Theatrical release poster for Waitress

hands, molten chocolate poured over a pie crust, and glossy cherries tumbling into a pie pan. Sinful delectable pies are pulled hot from the oven, and the “food porn” obsession that modern cooking shows have come to love is complete. All the elements are there: the imagined tactile sensation of tossing chocolate chips, and skipping the less exciting steps, like making the crust, and passing right from placing the pie in the oven to the steaming finished pie. The shots make one’s mouth water, and also put “main character” pie into immediate center-stage.

Anyone who has sunken a fork into a steaming hot pie knows what a treat it is. Likewise, every American knows that pie is a traditional American symbol: Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July, fresh berry pies in the summer, and spicy pumpkin pies in the fall, pie is delicious and nostalgic all in one bite.

The tiny slice of Jenna’s past that the viewer sees is linked to pie. The first time she dares to take her lover home, she tells Dr. Pomatter in her kitchen, “Mama used to call this Lonely Chicago Pie. She made 100s of pies. They all had strange names like Car Radio Pie, or Jenna’s First Kiss Pie.” Nostalgia and tradition, connected to a golden past, are contained in her pies.

Sweet, unassuming pie is also strongly linked to power and control. In her home life, Jenna has little power over anything. Rude and controlling Earl, her husband, smothers her with cries for loving attention that Jenna cannot reciprocate. He abuses her emotionally and physically. It doesn’t take a great imagination for the Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl” to start playing in your head. She hardly has a personality because Earl is too obtuse to recognize any vestige of an individual. But back in the pie diner, Jenna is recognized as a masterful baker with a kind and sensible personality. She chats with her friends; she shows a bit of fiery personality to her boss; she earns money; even the curmudgeonly owner “Old” Joe (Andy Griffith) loves her pies. Together with the other waitresses (also unhappy at home), Dawn and Becky, Jenna has creates a home-away-from home.

The control that Jenna actually can exercise is, of course, through pie-making. She creates new pie recipes as an emotional and creative outlet, imagining one to fit every situation in life. Bad Baby Quiche is invented when Jenna feels particularly hostile about having a child; Fallin’ in Love Pie is created with Dr. Pomatter in mind; Magic Love Pie for Dawn to take with her on a blind date; Earl Murders Me Because I’m Having an Affair Pie: you smash blackberries and raspberries into a chocolate crust; and Baby Screaming its Head off in the Middle of the Night and Ruining My Life Pie: New York style cheesecake, brandy brushed, with pecans and nutmeg.

The fact that Joe appreciates her pies is quite a testament to Jenna’s engaging nature and pie genius; everyone else avoids him. “This is my pie diner. I own it,” he states without preamble. “And I think it’s warm in here. They keep all my businesses too warm on the inside. My gas station, my supermarket, my laundromat.”  The all-powerful pie lets Jenna assert her own worthiness to Joe, even though she is of a lower class than him. She says, “I don’t believe for one second you’re as mean as you play,” calming his temper with a slice of pie he can’t refuse. Later in the film a friendship blossoms when Joe says Jenna’s Strawberry Oasis Pie “could solve all of [his] problems in the world.” Joe gives Jenna advice, talks to her, and dances with her at her friend’s wedding (in the diner). This friendship is key to Jenna’s actualization in the end of the film: Ultimately, Joe is her enabler to begin a new life by bequeathing her a small fortune upon his death.

With Joe’s money, Jenna buys her freedom. No longer monetarily dependent on Earl, she leaves him on the spot. Earl reacts more like a baby than the newborn. Even though Jenna has enough money to move away from the very town, she buys Joe’s Pie Diner and continues to work as a waitress and bakes pies. It’s a subtle triumph, at first, a bit like Jenna herself – never presuming, never out loud. But you see it in the transformation of what is now called Lulu’s Diner, after her daughter: in the bold, bright colors splashed on the walls, and in the lace-edged uniforms, dresses plucked straight off a doll. In the scene before Jenna and her daughter skip Hollywood-style into the sunset, she is holding her daughter, baking a pie at home, humming and smiling – happily.

Jenna’s transformation from downtrodden wife, dallying waitress to independent woman is helped, catalyzed, and symbolized through pie.

Diana Zahuranec is earning her Master’s degree in Food Culture and Communications at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Piemonte, Italy, by eating, drinking, traveling and studying about food in all of its aspects. She’ll be graduating in May 2012.

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