Tennessee (**3/4)

Brothers (Adam Rothenberg, Ethan Peck) trek east from New Mexico in this low-key drama. On the way, they meet a waitress in a diner (Mariah Carey) whose husband has become abusive. Although there is also abuse in the background of the brothers—their father is the reason they fled—the movie has nothing new to say on that subject. It’s all about brotherly love. The older of the two, once a protector, has become alcoholic. The younger one is sick, which is, indirectly, why they are returning to Tennessee. What they will find there is what drives the plot. Director Aaron Woodley favors a still camera and subdued lighting to such an extent that it’s monotonous, despite some painterly tableaux. The only music is Carey, humming to herself and, later, warbling a tune she wrote with Willie Nelson in a singer-songwriter style not common on her records. The conclusion is satisfying if you don’t like having every loose knot tied up.

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viewed 6/4/09 (screening at Ritz 5); reviewed 6/19/09

Waitress (***1/4)

This comedic drama is the story of an unhappily married diner waitress (Keri Russell) in a small southern town who finds herself, to borrow another film title, knocked up. Subtly condescending to her controlling, insecure husband, she finds solace in the arms of the town’s dreamy new doctor. “I was addicted to saying things and having them matter to someone,” she confides in a voiceover, by way of explaining her adultery, and of furthering revealing the late Adrienne Shelly’s gifts as a writer. The folksier, more comedic diner scenes reminded me of the 1980s TV show Alice, with Cheryl Hines as the sassy waitress, director Shelly as the dowdy one, and Russell as the (soon-to-be) single mom hoping for something better, perhaps utilizing her skills as a sort of pie auteur. As with that show, there would seem to be too few employees for a diner, but never mind. Well-acted and warm as pie, this is a sweet treat with just enough crust on the outside.

(written 6/15/07)

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Avenue Montaigne [Fauteuils d'Orchestre] (***1/4)

? Along a posh Parisian boulevard: an ornery TV actress wants a movie role; a concert pianist wants to shed the trappings of his profession; an aging art collector wants to sell; and a perky waitress, crossing the paths of all these important persons, wants only to earn enough to pay for a flat. American director and occasional actor Sydney Pollack plays a director for whom the actress hopes to play Simone de Beauvoir.

+ You don’t see too many of these ensemble-cast movies coming out of Hollywood, and most of the recent examples are heavy works like Crash or Babel, but I always like it when I see this sort of multi-character comedy-drama done well. The waitressing job (she does room service too) is a nice device to have the poor pixie interact with all of the ritzier characters, who have a lot but want something else. The story does a nice job of introducing all the angst of these people while keeping the tone light. Other pluses are the cast (especially Valérie Lemercier as the actress, the most full-bodied character, and Cécile de France as the waitress), the piano playing, and some fabulous views of the Eiffel Tower.

- The movie is sometimes serious, but rarely deep. Not a great flaw, as it’s not striving to be.

= ***1/4 This charmer isn’t really a romantic comedy, but it has elements of and feels like one, so it’s worth a look for anyone who enjoys that genre. Lemercier’s and Pollack’s half-in-French, half-in-English discussion of whether de Beauvoir was sexually repressed is a seriocomic highlight.

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