Review of Cake (2014) by Inaneswine — 14 Nov 2017

The main thing Cake really has going for it would be the strength of Aniston's performance. She's already proven 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.