'Cake' Review (1 Viewer)

Aniston plays Claire Simmons, a former L.A. attorney who's now unable to work (or do much of anything else, for that matter) on account of the chronic pain resulting from injuries she sustained in a car wreck over one year prior. The accident also claimed the life of her young son, and now Claire attends a women's support group as part of her long road to recovery — which, by the way, isn't going so well.


Director Daniel Barnz and screenwriter Patrick Tobin's film is very much a character study of Claire, framed around her somewhat unhealthy preoccupation with the recent suicide of fellow support group member Nina (Anna Kendrick), who decided to throw herself off a busy freeway overpass, leaving behind her husband, Roy (Sam Worthington), and 5-year-old son (Evan O'Toole).


Where the movie shines is in Aniston's multifaceted portrayal of her character, for the actress brings an incredible degree of depth to her depiction, from both an emotional and a physical standpoint. Claire is without a doubt a victim of circumstance, and Aniston's pained expressions, disheveled appearance and curtailed movements never fail to elicit sympathy from the audience. However, she's also in many ways a very dislikable and unsympathethic character, because not only does the pain turn Claire's own body against her, it also causes her to lash out in a verbally abusive manner at the people around her (which, we're led to assume, is what drove away her ex-husband, played by Chris Messina).


But most of the film's secondary characters are often too thinly drawn, plot points are handled a little too predictably (yes, the movie does indeed feature a cake or two) and, in the end, everything is just tied up and presented in too neat a bow for the story to register as anything truly meaningful.

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