The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Waitress
Drama · Comedy · Romance · 2007
A small town waitress stuck in a lousy marriage finds love when an exciting out-of-towner enters her life.
Movie details
Waitress
“If only life were as easy as pie.”
2007 Drama · Comedy · Romance 1h 45m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.7 / 10
Community rating
A small town waitress stuck in a lousy marriage finds love when an exciting out-of-towner enters her life.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Waitress?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
A California Christmas: City Lights
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Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.
Love in Taipei
Romance · 2023
A young American woman is sent by her parents to a cultural immersion program in Taipei where she begins a new journey of self-discovery and romance.
Fools Rush In
Comedy · 1997
After a one night stand with Alex, Isabel realizes that she is pregnant and they decide to get married. However, along with the marriage comes compromise of one's own cultural traditions.
I Met a Girl
Romance · 2020
An aspiring musician struggling with schizophrenia falls for a mysterious woman who may be all in his head. When she suddenly vanishes, he takes off on a cross-country journey across Australia to find her, forcing his long-suffering brother to chase after him.
Not Easily Broken
Drama · 2009
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Gas Food Lodging
Drama · 1992
Nora, a single mother raising two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, waits tables at a truck-stop diner in a small New Mexico town. The beautiful and rebellious Trudi drops out of school and gets a job alongside Nora, while the younger Shade whittles away her time at Spanish movie matinees. Their lives are turned upside down when Trudi becomes pregnant and the girls' absent father returns.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Romance · 2025
Bridget Jones navigates life as a widow and single mum with the help of her family, friends, and former lover, Daniel. Back to work and on the apps, she's pursued by a younger man and maybe – just maybe – her son's science teacher.
Which Brings Me to You
Romance · 2023
Two romantic burnouts, Jane and Will, are immediately drawn to each other at a mutual friend’s wedding. After a disastrous hookup in the coatroom, the two spend the next 24 hours together, trading candid confessions of messy histories and heartbreak, on the off chance that this fling might be the real thing.
Father of the Bride
Romance · 2022
A father comes to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding through the prism of multiple relationships within a big, sprawling Cuban-American family.
Mystic Pizza
Romance · 1988
Three teenage girls come of age while working at a pizza parlor in Mystic, Connecticut.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Adrienne Shelly
Written by
Adrienne Shelly
Keri Russell
Jenna Hunterson
Nathan Fillion
Dr. Jim Pomatter
Andy Griffith
Old Joe
Cheryl Hines
Becky
Adrienne Shelly
Dawn Williams
Jeremy Sisto
Earl Hunterson
Eddie Jemison
Ogie Anhorn
Court is in session
Put Waitress on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.