Just back from vacation, where I couldn’t completely escape the motion picture industry….
I see a movie almost every weekday. I see a movie with my wife, in a theater, about once a year now (busy schedules, two young children, not that many films I care to see a second time, I’m cheap when it comes to baby-sitting….)
Too cheap, my wife tells me.
But I wanted her to see “Waitress,” the screwball-funny life lesson starring Keri Russell as a pregnant waitress who dreams up exquisitely oddball pies at a tiny Southern diner as she dreams of a better life.
It made me laugh again, smile again. It also made me think again about it being one of those films released early in the year that shouldn’t be punished for that fact come Academy Award consideration time.
This delicious slice of the farce of life should be nominated for best original screenplay. Russell (remember she’s an Emmy-winner for “Felicity”) should be a candidate for best actress.
I decided on second viewing that without question, a nomination is in order for best supporting actor for a man whom many young filmgoers will likely discover here for the first time: Andy Griffith.
He’s 81, he’s been retired for years, and he’s never been better. As the cantankerous diner customer who imparts his order, his opinions, his wisdom and his senility, he’s the heart of the film, creating a character who’s made his share of mistakes and tries to keep a young woman from doing the same.
Andy Griffith will always be Sheriff Andy Taylor, but I remember the first time he teamed with Don Knotts in the comedy film classic “No Time for Sergeants.” He’ll always have that courtroom presence as Matlock, but I recall him as Lonesome Rhodes, facing the court of public opinion in Elia Kazan’s scathing “A Face in the Crowd.”
But those movies are 50 years old, so many young people who see “Waitress” will decide they’ve found a new star, an overnight sensation, and wonder where Andy and his folksy charm have been all this time.
The answer: Somewhere between Mount Pilot, North Carolina, and Hollywood, California.
