(2007) Adrienne Shelly co-wrote (with Andrew Hollander, who also composed the score), directed, and co-starred in this heart-felt, down-to-earth story of Jenna (Keri Russell), a young waitress and genius pie maker at Joe's Pie Diner, who discovers with dismay she's pregnant.

Her mean, controlling husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto), who won't even let her drive a car, got her drunk and had his way with her six weeks earlier. Jenna tells her fellow waitresses, Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly), that she doesn't want the baby but nonetheless will. She's been saving money to run away from Earl, hoping to enter and win a pie-making contest with prize money.

Jenna invents pie recipes to match her moods: for example, I-hate-my-husband pie and I-don't-want-a-baby pie. Sometimes a very satisfying pie is the result of an unexpected combination of ingredients.

The owner of the diner, gruff and grumpy old Joe (Andy Griffith), taking a great liking to her and her pies, reads her advice and horoscopes from the newspaper before placing his persnickety orders. At first Jenna is disappointed that Dr Jim Pomatter (Nathan Fillion), a new obstetrician in town, will be her attending physician; but soon they're having an affair (feral animal magnetism), brightening her otherwise unhappy circumstances. Conflicted she bakes an affair pie for Dr Pomatter, who is married, and teaches him how to create a pie with the spices of life.

Nearly everyone is attracted to Jenna - Dawn tells her after another instance of selfless generosity, "You are the queen of kindness and goodness," and even Earl, down on his knees embracing her, confesses, "You're the only person that ever belonged to me" - except Cal the cook, who tells Jenna he's "happy enough" with his life, having an affair with Becky, who's wedded to an invalid.

Feeling like the anti-mother with an alien parasite who can only further complicate her life (maybe, she thinks, she could sell the baby to get away from Earl), she writes letters of apology to the developing fetus. Earl, who demanded that she promise him she would never love the baby more than him, finds the money she's been hiding; lying to him that the money is for things for the baby, she cries to herself: "Damn baby. Damn crib."

Overcoming an initial dislike of the odious Ogie and his persistent courting of her, believing she has no other prospects, Dawn accepts a marriage proposal from the only man who took an interest in her. Old Joe, dreaming for Jenna, encourages her: "Start fresh." Her own dream is to stop everything and run away with Dr Pomatter. On the same day she enters the hospital to have her baby, Joe, on his way to having liver surgery, gives her a card containing a generous gift to be opened after the baby's birth. As one life ends, another begins.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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