From the Trenches at SIFF: Waiter and Gunga Din.

On my first day at the Seattle International Film Festival I jumped right in with a dark comedy from the Netherlands called Waiter.

Described as being Charlie Kaufman-esque, with overtones of The Purple Rose of Cairo thrown in for good measure, this black comedy follows the tedious life of Edgar, a beleaguered waiter who is put upon by his abusive customers, his ailing wife, his unpredictable girlfriend, his unreliable co-worker, and his grossly inconsiderate neighbors (who happen to be with the mob), and generally by life itself. Edgar's existence is miserable, and apparently more self-aware than we realize, he storms into the home of the film's screenwriter demanding a change of luck and better lines. The writer complies, but to a point. The writer's girlfriend has other ideas, and tinkers with the film's screenplay resulting in not only chaos but a near revolt from other characters in the film-within-a-film.

Waiter was dark without becoming bleak, and at times uproariously funny.

Our day's second show, part of the Swashbuckler Saturdays program, was the 1939 classic Gunga Din, starring Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. This rollicking adventure story (from which Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom owes so much) pits three British soldiers serving in India against an evil Kali-worshipping Thuggee cult bent upon dominating all of India. Grant and Fairbanks are terrific, and one could not ask for a more appropriate film for a Saturday afternoon matinee.