Review of Cake (2014) by Matt C — 20 Jan 2015

It's a well known fact that movies are supposed to elicit a reaction from their audiences. Even if movies don't succeed in what they intend to do, they tend to make the audiences feel something, whether it's anger or unintentional laughter.

Then there are rare movies like Cake, ones that don't make you feel anything at all. Despite Jennifer Aniston's performance, this movie doesn't really have anything to offer, because--let's face it--if she never signed onto this, this would be a Lifetime movie.

Like I mentioned, I don't dislike this movie because of how it (didn't) make me feel, but because the movie doesn't really need to exist. At all. The script is kind of jumbled and rather reliant on motifs like wind chimes and occasional emotional manipulation.

The latter is somewhat jarring since the movie at most times attempts to be understated, but instead ends up being dull and pointless. Most characters are extraneous and others are slightly elevated by their actors, not the writing.

Speaking of the writing, it just doesn't make you care about anything. It seems pretty evident that Aniston chose this movie because she hoped that she'd get an Oscar, but that clearly didn't work out for her.

(But to be fair, the Oscar nominations this year sucked ass.) She does a good job and I would say that she's this movie's saving grace, but it's not that she's able to redeem Cake because she isn't given a whole lot to do.

Anna Kendrick elevates the movie a bit just like always when she sporadically pops up, but she doesn't have a ton to do either. Some moments are laughable and others are awkward, while some sequences are boring and some just shouldn't even be included.

It's been a while since a movie left me so unaffected and unmoved, but Cake takes the, ahem, cake. And there's your obligatory bad pun about the movie's title. 4.2/10, bad, two thumbs down, below average, etc.