(USA, 102 min.)
Dir. Daniel Barnz, Writ. Patrick Tobin
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Adriana Barraza, Anna Kendrick,
Sam Worthington, Mamie Gummer, Felicity Huffman, Lucy Punch.
Last week’s Oscar nominations brought disappointing news for
Jennifer Aniston and her fans when the former “Friends” star missed one of five
Best Actress slots for which she had aggressively campaigned during the award
season grind. She still has nominations from the Golden Globes, the Critics’
Choice, and the Screen Actors Guild, so no Oscar nomination doesn’t mean that
Aniston can’t have her cake and eat it too. Going from the darkest horse of the
race to the number one snub isn’t an easy feat and Oscar/film history might be
kinder to Aniston’s turn in Cake
since she missed out with the Academy. Enjoy Aniston’s work in Cake as a strong performance in its own
right and not simply as another box to tick off on the Oscar cheat sheet. Cake showcases one heck of a performance
from Aniston and it’s a testament to her range and skill alone that her film
made it this far since debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival in
2014.
Aniston almost deserves an award for taking Cake so far, simply because the film
itself isn’t anywhere on par with her performance. Films about
suffering and depression aren’t easy to handle—when they work, they work, and when
they don’t, well, they’re a slog—and Cake
is almost unbearably grim as it follows Aniston’s Claire on the road to healing
when she becomes obsessed with the suicide of Nina (Anna Kendrick), one of the
members of her support group for chronic pain. Aniston winces in agony as
Claire suffers every kind of pain imaginable—the scars covering her body are just
as symbolic as they are physical—and Cake
wallows in the unhappiness of its central protagonist. Claire might be the
angriest, bitterest, bitchiest character to grace the screen without giving the
audience any wiggle room for redemption, but she’s a remarkably humane
character even if she’s impossible to like.
Getting over grief isn’t easy, though, so Cake, thankfully, doesn’t dip into the
over-tread waters of sufferers overcoming obstacles to find the joy and
happiness that underlie their pain and misery. Claire is simply miserable and
she certainly seems to have earned that right with each bit of her backstory
that Cake reveals. The script by
Patrick Tobin sometimes feels a bit too calculated with its withholdings and the
timing of its revelations—forced subtlety is a peculiarity that Cake sprinkles on a bit too much—and the
odd contrivances that work to Claire’s benefit, such as her relationship with
Nina’s widower (Sam Worthington), don’t do Cake
many favours since they often ring false despite the best efforts of Barnz and
his cast to deliver them as authentically as possible. Why anyone would put up
with her Claire is a mystery, since she mistreats everyone around her and
manipulates them in turn, and the character seems as far away from Rachel Green
as one can be.
It isn't easy to sell a film on such an unlikable character, yet Aniston elevates the film with her brave and
vulnerable performance. It's a stretch to call Cake her Monster, since she'll always have The Good Girl--but Aniston rejuvenates herself with this raw dramatic
turn. Drab and without a hint of make-up, save for her scars, she gives a dynamic
show without a hint of self-consciousness. Her impressive physical performance
carries the nuances and afflictions of living with such deep physical pain
daily and the itch of Claire's drug addiction. The few moments in which Claire lets
down her guard and exposes herself to the audience give Aniston some revelatory
moments to convey the emotional pain that Claire carries following the trauma
that caused it.
Aniston dares the audience to dislike Claire with all her self-loathing, eye-rolling, and unrelenting self-pity, but she also makes her more relatable and worthy of forgiveness the more one tires of seeing Claire so mad at the world. Aniston’s especially good when Cake calls on her to inject Claire’s acerbity with the comedic timing she developed on “Friends,” for Claire’s biting sarcasm and barbed remarks build walls between Claire and her peers onscreen while revealing to the audience the character’s desperate guardedness. Everyone’s probably encountered a Claire at least once in their lives, and if Claire can’t shake anything off, her imperfections make her a far more forceful character as she chooses to live with the pain instead of trying to hide it.
Aniston dares the audience to dislike Claire with all her self-loathing, eye-rolling, and unrelenting self-pity, but she also makes her more relatable and worthy of forgiveness the more one tires of seeing Claire so mad at the world. Aniston’s especially good when Cake calls on her to inject Claire’s acerbity with the comedic timing she developed on “Friends,” for Claire’s biting sarcasm and barbed remarks build walls between Claire and her peers onscreen while revealing to the audience the character’s desperate guardedness. Everyone’s probably encountered a Claire at least once in their lives, and if Claire can’t shake anything off, her imperfections make her a far more forceful character as she chooses to live with the pain instead of trying to hide it.
Claire’s coldness feels cruelest when she takes for granted
her housekeeper Silvana (Babel’s
Adriana Barraza), who sticks with Claire during the most difficult year in her
life. Silvana, an effective surrogate for the audience, gets some of Cake’s highlight scenes as she protects
and supports Claire, and the subtlety of Barraza’s performance is extremely
effective. As Cake gradually reveals
more of Claire’s story, Silvana shows the audience that she, too, experienced a
devastating loss on the day of Claire’s accident, but she hardly has the luxury
of marinating in her pity as much as her employer does. Barraza deserves as
much praise for Cake as Aniston’s
receiving, since she’s just as heartbreaking and hilarious. Barraza’s a
standout in a strong supporting cast that does its best to make Cake rise above its downer of a
character study. Even if the film stands as Aniston’s show, though, that’s a
fine way to slice it since Cake
offers one of her best film performance to date.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Cake is now in
theatres from D Films.
It screens in Ottawa at Landmark Kanata and SilverCity Gloucester.
