If you are coming here from writhaus.com, welcome. This is my more informal opinion on the ending of the film Waitress. I am going to assume you’ve seen the film, so know I am going to talk candidly about events and what I think about them. If you want to know my full opinion of the film and haven’t read it already, I suggest pausing and visiting writhaus.com.

With the ending, Jenna discovers a reason to live when she holds her daughter. She has formed no bond with her through the pregnancy and shows nothing more than tolerance until she holds her for the first time. That apparently empowers her to stand up to her husband at last. Shortly thereafter, she breaks things off with Dr. Pomatter. From there, she goes on to buy the restaurant with money Joe gave her and live happily ever after free from male interests.

First, the way she broke things off with Dr. Pomatter bothered me. She initiated the affair with him, twice. Yet he gets nothing in the end. Narratively, I am ok with that as he was having an affair, which shouldn’t be rewarded. The problem is Jenna officially began the affair, and she was married, legally if not mentally. She bears as much responsibility as the doc does. Why should she get the happy ending while the doctor gets nothing?

I suppose something could be said for him having his own wife to go home to and Jenna tells him she sees only trust in her eyes. That’s little consolation for someone in love, I can assure you.

Also, why does it take holding the child for her to snap out of her funk? Her husband wanted a boy and doesn’t sneer when he finds out he has a daughter. If he had done that, her kicking him to the curb at that moment might have been more justified. As it stands, how is she to know he wouldn’t be affected the same way she was when he held her? I don’t understand the idea of staying with her husband however long they were married only to break things off when an event happens that could fix things. Obviously she loved him enough to say, “I do,” in the past, so what is it about seeing her baby that pushes her over the edge?

Those two issues spoiled the film for me to a large degree. I try not to let that detract from the enjoyable ride I had until the last fifteen minutes, but it is definitely hard. If there had been a few tweaks made to the ending…some insight given into why she decides she can found a She Woman Man Haters club, then I would have no problem with the film. As it stands, all I wonder is what her problem with men is.