Review: 'Cake' starring Jennifer Aniston, Anna Kendrick, and Sam Worthington

Oh quiet down, Team Jennifer fans: your favorite Friends star wasn't snubbed by the Oscars for her grief-stricken performance in Cake. That's not to say she isn't deserving of some measure of kudos for taking on a role much darker than we've seen since she was briefly an indie darling for The Good Girl. Aniston does deserve credit for that, but the film itself is an inelegant look at misery and depression that holds her back from reaching real emotional depths.

The oddly-titled Cake is just as odd of a nut to crack. At times it's so bleak and humorless that to watch it can be a real drag, but then the next moment it resembles a snarkier version of Spanglish, which is about as lame as that sounds. Aniston takes a break from the lame rom-coms and gives an intermittently powerful performance as Claire Simmons, a woman scarred in just about every way imaginable. Both physically and emotionally she is a damaged woman, who hides her pain by the constant taking of prescription pills and a "who gives a crap" attitude about everything. That includes her treatment of loyal housekeeper Silvana (Adrianna Barrazza), who functions as a sort of cheerful enabler to Claire's negativity. Claire is so terrible she's lost just about everyone: her husband (Chris Messina) has long since moved on; her support group wants her to seek help elsewhere; and even her physical therapist (Mamie Gummer) thinks she's given up.

While the story of an extreme depressive's turn towards redemption can be a powerful one if told with an honest accounting of struggles involved, Cake takes an unnecessarily quirky route and never quite recovers. After nearly killing herself on drugs, Claire begins to see visions of and have combative conversations with Nina (Anna Kendrick), a former member of her self-help group who committed suicide. Nina becomes obsessed with Nina's life, visiting her former home and encountering her widowed husband Roy (Sam Worthington), who seems remarkably open to being stalked by an unstable woman. He doesn't seem to mind that she keeps showing up out of the blue, and Claire doesn't mind using him to make herself feel better. She doesn't mind using anybody, for that matter. Claire is a user, first and foremost.

Claire is also not especially likable. She's not nearly as funny as the screenplay wants her to be, and every attempt to make her so comes across as mean-spirited and selfish. There isn't enough consistency in her character to make us pity her, and it's a complete disservice to Aniston who dives into Claire's grief with both feet. We've never seen her play a character this unhappy, this sour, this defeated by life, and it's startling given the sexy comedic roles she's had of late. While it doesn't rank with some of the more challenging female performances that did get Oscar nominations, Aniston has set herself up for greater dramatic roles in the future. With the warm, comforting Barrazza they make for an interesting oil & water duo to watch when not tripped up by shapeless screenplay. Unfortunately, Cake is an unsatisfying meal too unsure tonally and lacking in any serious revelations on breaking free of despair.

 Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Jennifer Aniston Drinks and Pops Pills in First Trailer for 'Cake'

We've been down this route with Jennifer Aniston before; the one where he takes on a completely stripped down role in an indie feature and turns everybody's head with her acting. That was more than a decade ago with The Good Girl, a film that earned her an Indie Spirit Award nomination and other accolades. Earlier this year Aniston began generating some festival buzz for Cake, which sees her once again stripping down the glamor (rather than just stripping down as in Horrible Bosses 2 or We're the Millers) in taking on the darkest role of her career.

But is the film any good? Well...that's up for debate. While the reviews were split after it premiered at Toronto, the real proof may be that producers failed to find distribution, ultimately being forced to start their own company to release it.  Rarely is that such a good sign. Aniston plays Claire Simmons, an emotionally crippled woman who begins obsessing over the suicide by a member (Anna Kendrick) of her support group. Meanwhile, the self-absorbed Claire begins having an affair with the dead woman's widower, played by Sam Worthington. Adriana Barraza, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Lucy Punch, Chris Messina, Britt Robertson, Mamie Gummer, and the late Misty Upham co-star with Daniel Barnz (Beastly) directing.

We've seen a complete transformation in Aniston as she's embraced her risque side in R-rated comedies, but dramatic roles have been few. The thing is, she's actually pretty good when given the opportunity to branch out into more serious work. Cake may not be the film that gets her any awards contention but it may open the door to other opportunities. After a one-week Oscar qualifying run next month Cake will open in January.



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Ayelet Zurer Eyes 'Ben-Hur'; Anton Yelchin Joins 'Baseballissimo'; Judy Greer is a 'Geezer'

She's already played Superman's mom in Man of Steel, now the gorgeous Ayelet Zurer will be the mother of Ben-Hur in Timur Bekmambetov's remake. She joins a cast led by Jack Huston as the title character, a nobleman forced into slavery after being falsely accused of a crime by his best friend. Oscar-winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) wrote the latest screenplay, with Morgan Freeman and Toby Kebbell co-starring. Despite Zurer coming aboard the search is still on for an actress to replace Gal Gadot, who had to back out due to her Wonder Woman commitments.  [THR]

Jay Baruchel must love his sports comedies. A couple of years ago he co-wrote and starred in the hockey film, Goon, and now he's switching gears to the diamond with Baseballissimo. Baruchel wrote and will star in the film alongside Anton Yelchin, which is about "a rising baseball minor-league player who gets detoured on the way to major-league stardom by pitching for the Peones, a baseball team in Italy." Jacob Tierney (Good Neighbors) will direct. [THR]

The always hilarious Judy Greer (she's great on Married, by the way) will join Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong in Geezer, along with Fred Armisen, Selma Blair, Chris Messina, Dallas Roberts, and Brian Baumgartner. The rock music drama centers on "the mid-life crisis of a husband and father who, on his 40th birthday, decides to revisit his punk-rock past by throwing an extravagant party in the presidential suite of the Drake Hotel—where he encounters his beautiful ex-girlfriend and former bandmates who have since moved on to bigger and better things." Meh. Lee Kirk is directing this one now in New York City.

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Anna Kendrick and Sam Worthington Serve Up 'Cake' with Jennifer Aniston

After a couple of $200M R-rated comedy hits in Horrible Bosses and We're the Millers, Jennifer Aniston is going a different route with the indie drama, Cake. And while director Daniel Barnz (Beastly, Won't Back Down) scored quite a coup getting her to headline the film, the rest of the cast is shaping up to be even more impressive.

According to The Wrap, Anna Kendrick, Sam Worthington, William H. Macy and his wife Felicity Huffman, Britt Robertson (Tomorrowland), Chris Messina, Lucy Walters (Shame), Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Camille Mana (Smart People), and Manuel Garcia Rulfo have joined the cast. Patrick Tobin's script wound up on the 2013 Black List and has Aniston playing "an acerbic woman named Claire who becomes fascinated by the suicide of Nina, a woman in her chronic pain support group. As she uncovers the details of Nina's suicide and develops a poignant relationship with Nina's husband, Claire also grapples with her own very raw personal tragedy." Kendrick will play Nina who reappears as a ghost to taunt Claire, with Worthington as Nina's husband.  Messina will be Claire's ex-husband while Huffman is the facilitator of a support group.

No word on when filming will begin or how this will fit into Kendrick's schedule. She has Pitch Perfect 2 coming up, and recently wrapped Disney musical, Into the Woods. She had three movies at Sundance that are all expected to drop some time this year: Joe Swanberg's Happy Christmas, Life After Beth opposite Dane DeHaan, and Marjane Satrapi's The Voices.

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Harmony Korine, Holly Hunter, and Chris Messina Join David Gordon Green's 'Manglehorn'

Whether one appreciated David Gordon Green's smallish buddy comedy Prince Avalanche (our own Rocky Hadadi sure didn't), it at least represents a stylistic return to form for the director. Once an indie darling thanks to films like George Washington and my personal favorite of his All the Real Girls, Green pulled a fast one on his fans by directing stoner flicks Pineapple Express, The Sitter, and the abysmal Your Highness. At the very least it marked him as a cinematic chameleon, and lately he's been going back to his roots a little bit.

Green has managed to snag Al Pacino for his upcoming film, the oddly-titled Manglehorn, and now he's added a Spring Breakers director Harmony Korine, Holly Hunter, and Chris Messina to the cast. Written by Green and Paul Logan, the story centers on the title character, "an ex-con living a hermetic existence who 40 years earlier had given up the woman he loves for one big job. As he begins the process of making up for his mistakes, a dramatic event exposes his dark past to the public."

While it may seem strange to cast Korine, Green has been pretty upfront about the influence he's drawn from his films, in particular 1997's Gummo, which has mostly been crushed by critics but has amassed a number strong supporters. Korine also appeared briefly in Park Chan-Wook's Stoker earlier this year. Messina has been splashing around in the HBO pool as part of The Newsroom, and Hunter was terrific in Jane Campion's Top of the Lake.

Filming on Manglehorn begins this fall.[TheWrap/Deadline]

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Trailer Time: Monogamy, starring Chris Messina and Rashida Jones

Monogamy marks the narrative feature debut from Dana Adam Shapiro(Murderball), and features Chris Messina as a bored wedding photographer who starts a rather unique side business called "Gumshoot". Basically people pay him to stalk them with his camera. His infatuation with one of his clients only exacerbates the strained relationship with his fiance(Rashida Jones).

Murderball was one hell of a documentary, thrilling and inspirational stuff. Obviously this is a completely different beast, but I'm diggin' the look of it. Kinda has a One Hour Photo feel to it. I've never been sold on Messina, but that could be because he's  been so good at playing the mediocre, boring guy(watch him in Vicky Cristina Barcelona). Rashida Jones....well, besides being hot she's never been a factor in anything I've liked. To me she was the least effective part of I Love You, Man, although she was ok in a pretty meaningless part in The Social Network.This is the juiciest part for both, so let's see how it shakes out.  Check out the trailer below, and look out for Monogamy when it hits theaters on March 18th!

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