TIFF 2014: Cake Review

Cake

Special Presentations

A great, but not exactly against type turn from Jennifer Aniston can’t salvage this slovenly, misshapen dramedy about an angrily depressed pill popping woman with chronic pain and a wealth of repressed feelings.

Claire (Aniston) has separated from her husband and lost her child following a tragic accident. She goes through her days in a pissed off sarcastic haze, plagued by the memory of a fellow support group member (Anna Kendrick) who killed herself. Somewhat suicidal herself, the only things that keep her going are pills, booze, sex, a friendly Latino housekeeper and driver, and hooking up with the husband (Sam Worthington, in his best performance despite having nothing to do) of the deceased woman.

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Aniston certainly commits herself to the role, looking scarred up, generally pained, and never going for audience sympathy regardless of what the script asks of her. Unfortunately, Daniel Barnz (Beastly, Won’t Back Down) has absolutely no clue what film he wants to make.

The main failure of this film amounts to the cinematic equivalent of “vague-booking.” Nothing gets explained and the film thinks it’s so artful and intellectually thoughtful that the audience won’t give a shit that things are convenient or that they never add up or make sense. Nothing gets developed here beyond a surface level before getting dropped. I would call it episodic, but that’s almost an insult to other films that I’ve taken to task for feeling like a bunch of scenes that have just been strung together. It’s also so hopelessly predictable and frightfully arbitrary every step of the way that you can guess the final shot of the movie about five minutes into the film, which means the dull, plodding nature of the rest of the film makes it positively excruciating. Watching a talented cast (especially Kendrick the Friendly Ghost and the absolute worst use of William H. Macy I have ever seen in his career) flounder with useless roles should be a crime.

It’s frustrating how little the film actually gives a shit about anything, especially since Aniston and Worthington are actually giving an effort. Also, the title is so dreadfully stupid that it could have been named after literally anything that was sitting around the room at the time the film was conceived. It’s a stupid title named after a lousy plot point in a lousy film.

Screens

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Saturday, September 13th, 12:00pm, Princess of Wales


SPiN TORONTO - A Ping Pong Social Club

Thanks to SPiN TORONTO for sponsoring our TIFF 2014 coverage.



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