Cake (2014)

Lack of good storyline.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Jennifer Aniston is perfect. Movie, just about. Great job.

Please, give Jennifer Aniston an Oscar already. If only so she can stop making movies like this one. If you watch the preview, it's pretty obvious she wanted a nomination. If you watch the movie, you'll think to yourself, "Oh man, she really looks like she's in pain!" for about five minutes. Then, turn it off. Trust me.Aniston plays a woman who's been in an accident and is in constant, terrible pain. But before you feel sorry for her and hand her that gold statue, know this: throughout the entire movie, she makes bad choice after bad choice, and she's not likable in the slightest. The story is simultaneously boring and frustrating. And where did the acting go? Aniston's press agent spent a season touting her acting in preparation for the nomination she didn't receive, but the finished product doesn't show any of it.If you want to see someone with back pain, rent The Answer Man. It's much more enjoyable. Cake is terrible. Frankly, it gives desserts a bad name.

Spoiler alert..... the film fits into those categories that seem the trend these days where it starts on a down note and pretty much ends on a down note. The characters fail to change and you see very little growth. I personally don't find this type of story very conducive to great filmmaking because it lacks drama. Compounding matters, it appears Cake is a self-produced picture by Aniston the main star, which can sometimes lead to a a lack of objectivity. As a result, Aniston's dialogue is often wordy and the character repeats the same lines over and over or plays the same mood notes. I suppose this could have been avoided if she were not producing and writers had exercised more control or an editor could have simply cut out the fat. The film also has quite a few false endings where it simply feels as if it won't end but you've already gotten the point and the main character keeps repeating the same lines as if in a loop, again a symptom of a self-produced star driven picture. I will note that I admire Aniston and think she's a very strong actress but this picture spun out of control from the lack of it. I did not know much about this picture before I watched it but the filmmaking broadcasted it was self-produced by these symptoms.

The main thing Cake really has going for it would be the strength of Aniston's performance. She's already proved her solid comic timing in Friends and the stream of so-so romcoms that followed. Here, she uses comedy to heighten the drama and heartache of her caustic character. She makes it an uncomfortable watch, as you genuinely believe she's in pain throughout the film.Unfortunately, the screenplay lacks a coherent sense of direction; the scenes featuring Anna Kendrick's character constantly feel like a distraction, like moments that simply get in the way of the story, and and the film really wasted its opportunity as one of the few films covering the topic of chronic pain by bumbling into yet another film about grief. However, it does give Aniston some wicked one-liners, and a few scenes are very moving indeed.