Movie Review: Cake

Cake (2014)

R

2.5 Stars out of 5

Director                                Daniel Barnz

Writer                                   Patric Tobin

Cinematography              Rachel Morrison

Jennifer Anniston            Claire Bennett

Adrianna Barazza             Silvana

Anna Kendrick                   Nina Collins

Sam Worthington            Roy Collins

Chris Messina                    Jason Bennett

 

Like “Still Alice” and the performance of Alice Howland by Julianne Moore, “Cake” contains a powerful performance of a woman under duress; this one is by Jennifer Anniston. Unfortunately also like “Still Alice” there are serious problems with the writing. A story about someone suffering from chronic pain can be a compelling story to tell, and for actress as talented as Anniston proves herself to be in this movie, a challenge not to be ignored. And yet, writer Patric Tobin fatally chose to confuse the movie’s tone by introducing a ghost in order to help explicate and advance the character evolution of Anniston’s Claire Bennett.

The movie introduces Claire (Jennifer Aniston) as a member of a chronic pain support group that is recovering from the recent suicide of a former member, Nina Collins (Anna Kendrick). As the smarmy group leader Annette (Felicity Huffman) seeks closure for each member of the group she makes the mistake of calling on Claire to comment. Claire’s profane and bitter analysis of a suicide’s effects on the survivors they leave behind shocks the group; it also displays in graphic manner to the viewing audience the state of Claire’s personality. Has she always been this way or does it come from the pain she must daily endure? That Claire is in deep pain is vividly shown through Anniston’s acting. Her stiff movements, her inability to bend over to retrieve a fallen object, or the subtle signs flying across her face are all grim testament to her condition (and to Anniston’s careful portrayal).

There is some strength to the writing in the early stages of the movie, as writer Tobin and director Daniel Barnz slowly reveal Claire’s history. After hinting and then showing explicitly, the audience learns that Claire’s pain is more than physical; she is grieving, deeply so. She has suffered a terrible loss in a car accident, the same one that left her in such extreme pain. Her reaction to the accident and her losses have driven her inward. She has shut out and now seemingly hates her former husband. That he too is grieving appears to be of no concern to Claire. Her world has little room for anyone but her and her pain. Fortunately for Claire, her housemaid/cook Silvana (wonderfully played by Adrianna Barrazza) stays by her side. Silvana endures Claire’s verbal abuse, long hours and low pay out of a sense of duty and (more significantly) mourning for what has been lost from the Bennett household.

The movie loses its grip on the reality of the pain Claire is living by introducing a ghostly (imagined) Nina Collins (Anna Kendrick), the recent suicide from Claire’s CP support group. Like the over used voice over style of narrator used in far too many movies, Nina comes into the film in order to help explain Claire’s situation to Claire and the audience. Sure, as an imagined invisible antagonist/frenemy Nina helps Claire move on, but in bringing in this odd cinematic cliché, Tobin steals from the movie’s grief and angst to partially enter the realm of the mentally unsound. Is Claire going insane, is Nina a healthy way for Claire to deal with her problems or merely an unfortunate choice by the writer to explain the inner workings of Claire’s deteriorating mind? It was not a wise choice to make from controlling the pace and tone of the movie in my opinion.

Another poor choice from the aspect of believability is Nina’s surviving husband, Roy Collins (Sam Worthington). That he is handsome and the father of a small boy the same age as Claire’s is a little too convenient. That Claire is able to use her law school training to bully Annette into giving her Roy’s address is more than a little unbelievable. That Roy would receive and play along to Claire’s ruse when she arrives at Roy’s home ranges so far into the unbelievable, the movie should be re-classed as a fantasy. Once into Roy’s life, Claire and the movie continues down this unfortunate path of un-believability. Roy grows close to Claire, and Claire to some degree to Roy. Will they fall in love, will Roy be Claire’s salvation; do I really need answer these questions? Are Roy and his son only in the movie to provide a plot point that gets Claire to have a cake made to help Roy’s grieving son to survive his mother’s death. Maybe, maybe not, but the problem is that if you take a story rooted deeply in reality and start introducing multiple events that seem so improbable (don’t forget the highway worker that Claire finds and convinces to tell the story of how he witnessed Nina’s death), then the movie can and does lose its moorings. Is it a story of pain and recovery, or is it a poorly told tale designed to reach the point in the movie  that will display and emphasize the pain on Claire’s face as she views a returned photograph to her living room wall.

I’ll readily admit this movie can pull your heartstrings in that near final scene in the living room. And it boggles the mind that Anniston failed to earn at least an Oscar nomination for her brilliant but carefully restrained performance. She is simply outstanding. The movie has its moments, especially in the opening sequences where Claire’s situation is slowly unfolded for the viewer. However, by endlessly mixing in Nina the Ghost, the movie’s tone is sacrificed, its pacing is disrupted and by bringing in poor old Roy in the manner done in this movie, the film comes completely off the rails. I acknowledge and laud Anniston, but almost nothing else in this movie makes it a worthwhile venture to take the time it takes to watch.