Review: Cake

Jennifer Aniston plays a woman who after a car accident is left with facial scarring, agonising chronic pain, and a dependency on pain pills and alcohol. She also suffered a personal loss that is gradually revealed. Rarely leaving her bed and having a hard time getting over the suicide of friend and fellow chronic pain sufferer Anna Kendrick. Adriana Barraza plays Aniston’s maid, who treats her far better than Aniston frankly deserves. Sam Worthington turns up as Kendrick’s widowed husband, forced to look after their child pretty much on his own. In smaller roles, Chris Messina plays Aniston’s ex, Lucy Punch is a reckless doctor, Felicity Huffman is a support group administrator who is somewhat afraid of Aniston, William H. Macy plays a man from Aniston’s dark past, and Britt Robertson a young thief.

 

I’ve made it pretty clear by now that I don’t think much of Jennifer Aniston’s ability as an actress. In fact, like a lot of TV ‘personalities’ who try to branch out (especially on the big screen), I find she plays different characters exactly the same way. In this 2015 drama with occasional snarky humour from director Daniel Barnz (writer-director of “Beastly”) and screenwriter Patrick Tobin (only his second screenplay after 1996’s “No Easy Way”), Aniston is clearly begging for an Oscar nomination that didn’t arrive. 12 minutes in and she’s got ^2/3 of the Oscar role trifecta by being deglamourised (i.e. ‘too lazy to actually give a performance’) and having cheap sex from behind. However, there’s no nudity, so no Oscar nomination, sweetie. If she had at least put on a foreign accent it might’ve helped get her over the line.

 

Moving away from my obvious smart arsery (yep, it’s a word I invented), Aniston once again proves to be her usual self in a different role. While it really does bother me that Aniston never seems to really try and stretch herself in terms of performance, I will say this: There’s merit in seeking a famous movie/TV star seemingly in a bad state of mind on screen. It’s not like Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, or Humphrey Bogart stretched themselves terribly much, is it? To put it another way, I can’t really commend Aniston’s performance so much as I commend the effective use of her to serve the story. In fact, in a weird way, Jennifer Aniston (or the use of her) is the best thing here. Whether she’s an actress or not, seeing Aniston (fictionally) in a really distressing state is actually affecting at times, to the film’s credit. Otherwise it’s a bit silly, implausible and unconvincing in terms of the story around her. Even if Aniston did manage to disappear into the character it wouldn’t change a thing. The long-suffering Hispanic maid, the young runaway, and a trip to Mexico to buy drugs, it’s all cornball, unconvincing stuff. To her credit, Aniston does use far less of her usual tics and mannerisms (which I loathe with every fibre of my being. Everyone has someone like that, for me it’s Aniston) than in any other role I’ve seen her in. So that was nice, and I didn’t mind that her character isn’t terribly likeable. Good supporting work by Chris Messina (who always seems one good role away from an Oscar nomination), and more briefly a cameo by William H. Macy helps but not enough. I will say that casting Lucy Punch as an airheaded, criminally negligent doctor isn’t a bad fit for her, much as I’m still the opposite of a fan of hers (She’s got a bit of the Sally Hawkins/nails on a chalkboard vibe). Sam Worthington, who has a helluva hard time with accents, thankfully doesn’t bother putting one on here. Like Aniston, I find him a bit of a non-actor, and that’s no different here. He seems so lazy to me, though I did rather like him in the otherwise unexceptional “Paper Planes”. As for Anna Kendrick, I normally love her, but she’s pretty miscast here in flashbacks. It’s not just that the naturally sweet and bubbly actress doesn’t feel suited to such a dark role, but I couldn’t buy her and Aniston as best friends. I get that they met in a support group, but Aniston was 46 at the time and Kendrick a super-tiny and cutesy 30-31. It’s way too noticeable. Sure, they could still have stuff in common, no doubt about it. People can be friends with people who are younger or older than them. But a 15+ year age difference? Best friends? I sometimes feel like just because something happens in the real world, that doesn’t mean it convinces in a movie, and perhaps that’s the case for me here. I just wasn’t buying it, and Kendrick’s miscasting in such a role definitely worked against the film. Cast Charlize Theron, Cameron Diaz, or Jennifer Connelly in the role and I’d have less of a problem (Or better yet, cast Reese Witherspoon in the Aniston role. That’d be perfect). The issue is made even more obvious when 40 year-old Sam Worthington turns up and looks much more of a match for Aniston than he would Kendrick. Maybe this won’t bother you at all, that’s fine. I can get caught up on the weirdest and most minute details sometimes, but it took me out of things at the end of the day. But then, I was never terribly invested in it to begin with.

 

The film uses Jennifer Aniston well to tell its story of prescription drug addiction and suicide/grief themes, but the actual story itself isn’t satisfying. In fact, at times it’s pretty damn ridiculous. Overall, this one’s just OK and a lot of people are going to have a particularly hard timing warming up to Aniston’s character. I had no issues with the character’s personality, just the film around her.

 

Rating: C+