Cake

Cake (15)

USA 2014  102 mins  Dir: Daniel Barnz  Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Lucy Punch, Adrianna Barraza, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington

Don’tcha just hate it when luvvies use words like ‘brave’ and ‘fearless’, especially when these are routinely applied to any actress who demands applause for appearing on screen looking dowdy? Cake was clearly intended to give Jennifer Aniston a much-needed career makeover with a vanity-free, awards-friendly suffering woman role. There are certainly precious few light romantic comedy chuckles to be had as she fixes her scowl and adopts a stiff Bride of Frankenstein gait. And things get off to a flying start at a chronic pain support group where touchy-feely facilitator Annette (Huffman) encourages those present to get in touch with their feelings about the recent suicide of one of their number, Nina (Kendrick). “Way to go, Nina!” is Claire’s (Aniston) caustic response, which prompts passive aggressive Annette to invite her to share her feelings elsewhere in future.

Trouble is, Nina then starts popping up in dreams and visions. “Why are you such a cunt?” she demands of Claire on her first appearance. It’s a puzzling thing to say. Sure, Claire’s a grouchy old sod, drinks too much, tells porkies to feed her painkiller addiction, has joyless and uncomfortable sex with her Mexican gardener, and treats her remarkably loyal maid Silvana (Barraza) like dirt. But none of her actions really merit deployment of the nuclear C-bomb. You can almost picture the star’s agent in damage control mode, muttering “It’s for your own good, Jen” as s/he hovers over the script with a blue pencil, excising or toning down any hint of actual cuntishness so as not to alienate those members of the romcom audience who fail to read the advance publicity.

What’s more, the deal Hollywood usually offers with films of this nature is that we get to enjoy two acts of disgraceful behaviour before having to endure the inevitable redemption and/or comeuppance. But Cake seeks to engage our sympathies for Claire way too early with a scene where she’s seen disposing of a box of children’s toys. Hang on – there’s no child in her home. You don’t reckon…? Unfortunately, this also succeeds in scuppering the ‘mystery’ the film seeks to engender about the origin of her unfortunate condition.

Despite all the punches being pulled, this schematic, manipulative tearjerker still struggles with the essential ickiness of a plot development that sees Claire inveigle her way into the home and bed of Nina’s bereaved hubby, Roy (Worthington). To be fair to Aniston, she certainly gives a committed performance in what must rank as her first interesting role since Friends With Money nearly a decade ago. Was it worth scraping off all the slap for? Probably not.