Review: Cake

Cake features Jennifer Aniston in all her unvarnished glory as the emotionally and physically pained Claire Simmons. Her committed performance is the only reason to watch this movie, which barely reaches the lowest level of mediocrity.

Claire is a flinty character intent on keeping those around her at arm's length so she can freely wallow in her self-pity. It's clear death has taken her child and that her husband (Chris Messina), despite his obvious love for her, has been driven from their home. Her housekeeper Silvana (Adriana Barraza), however, stays put, withstanding Claire's often blunt jibes to act as her mother, friend, and protector.

The suicide of Nina (Anna Kendrick), one of the regulars in the chronic pain sufferers support group which Claire attends, disturbs Claire though she offends the genteel sensibilities of the support group by denouncing Nina with the sarcastic "I hate it when suicides make it easy on the survivors." Given the severity of her physical agony, one has to wonder if Claire herself has entertained suicidal thoughts. Her hallucinations of Nina strongly suggest this, leading Claire to visit the scene of the suicide and question one of the witnesses who watched Nina jump off the bridge and onto the below freeway. "Maybe she wasn't 100% certain," Claire muses. "Well," the witness retorts, "she was 100% successful."

Claire befriends Nina's husband Roy (Sam Worthington) who, whilst not outwardly bitter and depressed, resents his wife for leaving him to raise their young son by himself. Claire and Roy's interaction - presently platonic, potentially romantic - serves to usher in the third act where William H. Macy's cameo leads to a cathartic outburst.

It's difficult to muster any enthusiasm for a film that meanderingly goes through the motions. Cake is remarkable for how leaden and oppressive its blandness becomes. The only genuine point of interest is the relationship between Claire and Silvana - partly due to the actresses' sparky rapport, and partly because there is some insight there on the intimacy of the domestic-employer dynamic.

In Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow's brilliant show The Comeback, an episode noted how the word "brave" is often code-speak for an actress gaining weight, playing a man, or not wearing any make-up for a role - a reductive concept that perpetuates women's obsession with their images. To be beautiful shouldn't marginalise talent just as appearing natural or less glamourous shouldn't elevate it. Aniston is an abundantly gifted comic actress and she has proven her dramatic chops in The Good Girl and Friends with Money. Cake may be a far more dramatic turn than she's done in years, but its debilitated direction and intrinsically unsound script undermine Aniston's unmistakable dedication to the role. It's a laudable change of pace for the actress, but no more impressive than her performances in The Good Girl and Friends with Money.

Cake

Directed by: Daniel Barnz

Written by: Patrick Tobin

Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Adriana Barraza, Chris Messina, Sam Worthington, Anna Kendrick, Felicity Huffman, Mamie Gummer, William H. Macy, Lucy Punch