Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Cake Blu-ray Movie Review

Will Jennifer Aniston ever have her (Oscar) 'Cake' and eat it, too?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 28, 2015

There’s a certain irony to the seemingly immutable fact that the surest way for a glamorous actress to receive the kind of career recognition that typically results in trophies like an Academy Award or Golden Globe is to strip off her makeup and fashionable duds, and to have her play some sort of “everywoman.” It helps if the character is somehow addled, whether physically or emotionally, of course, but the baseline formulation, however craven it may seem, is simply to “de-glam” a star to make her as far removed from her red carpet movie star persona as possible. It’s what might be called “The Monster Syndrome,” or maybe even “The Monster's Ball Syndrome,” which might beg the question as to why screenwriter Patrick Tobin didn’t just cave to the inevitable and name his film Monstrous Cake or something similar. In fact Jennifer Aniston’s character Claire is both mentally and physically challenged in Cake, something that would seem to have given the typically perky rom-com star an inside track during awards season, but despite some fairly aggressive campaigning, Aniston didn’t even make it into the euphemistic “winners’ circle” of nominees when the Academy Award nominations were announced this year, despite having snagged nominations for both a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award.

There may in fact have been a bit of blowback against what was perceived as a perhaps over “enthusiastic” ad campaign touting Aniston for an Oscar nomination, a campaign which regularly focused on both the film’s and Aniston’s dramatic side. Things might have gone more swimmingly, and the film might have had a larger box office impact, had the film’s publicity mavens not ignored the at times bleakly black comedy Cake serves up, an aspect that Aniston’s always reliable timing handles with ease.

Claire is obviously in the throes of an aftermath of some horrible calamity, something that has left her face and body wracked with ugly scars and which has twisted her demeanor into a snarky, acerbic persona which initially at least seems to be lacking even one iota of the milk of human kindness. Claire’s penchant for sarcasm is brought home to bear in the film’s first scene, as Claire attempts not to engage in a touchy feely support group led by the over affected Annette (Felicity Huffman). It turns out that another member of the group, Nina (Anna Kendrick), has recently committed suicide, and Annette wants the gaggle of trauma survivors to “get in touch with their feelings” and voice their reactions to Nina—or at least to a gigantic photo of Nina while Annette herself pretends to be the recently deceased. It’s a patently silly moment on its face, but it also gives Cake its first opportunity to exploit the humor in what is an obviously tragic situation.

A series of voicemails lets Claire know that she’s been “dismissed” from her support group due to her caustic response to Nina’s suicide, as well as the fact that her estranged husband Jason (Chris Messina) wants to come by to pick up the rest of his items. Claire’s prickly personality has evidently made her something of a pariah, but she still has the unexpected support of her loving housekeeper Silvana (Adriana Barraza). Silvana dotes on Claire despite Claire’s tendency to shut down even the hint of “normal” human interaction, something that drives Silvana’s daughter to distraction.

In a magical realist element that slightly undercuts the film’s attempt to grittily portray Claire’s emotional and physical trauma, the drug dependent Claire begins hallucinating that Nina is alive and kicking, or at least dead and haunting. Nina’s inordinately perky personality only further exacerbates Claire’s disdain, but in an overly artificial plot development, Claire more or less blackmails Annette into revealing Nina’s home address, at which point Claire shows up to meet Nina’s widower husband Roy (Sam Worthington). Roy is obviously in the throes of trauma himself, dealing with his wife’s suicide and the emotional wake that has left not just for him but for his young son Casey (Evan O’Toole). Claire’s pretense to get her in the door turns out to be unnecessary, since Annette has already warned Roy about Claire, but it does reveal one interesting aspect to Claire’s character—she has absolutely no idea why she does things like this, seeming to act from some ineluctable interior force which simply wells up within her and forces her to behave in irrational ways.

It’s initially in Claire’s relationship with Silvana that it becomes evident that there is some empathy left in this badly wounded woman, though Patrick Tobin’s screenplay is perhaps too facile in detailing this (a scene in Tijuana, where Claire has forced Silvana to take her in order to get more meds, has Claire unexpectedly offering Silvana support when some of Silvana’s uppity Mexican friends accost her at a restaurant). Other scenes, like Claire and Silvana quizzing a highway worker who witnessed Nina’s suicide, are just patently artificial feeling, as if director Daniel Barnz simply thrust his performers together without a script and told them to wing it. These narrative stumbles are offset, though, by some wonderfully heartfelt moments as Claire and Roy begin a relationship of sorts. A scene in a cemetery where Roy hangs a wind chime over Nina’s grave is manipulative but undeniably moving. A couple of detours late in the film, one involving the man who wreaked havoc on Claire's life, and another involving a runaway girl, are anecdotal at best and do little to elucidate Claire's evolution.

There’s been little doubt that Aniston has significant dramatic chops since the last time she failed to get an Oscar nomination, for 2002’s The Good Girl. That film was a little bit more whimsical, offering Aniston a kind of middle ground between rom-com banality and dramatic intensity. The comedy in Cake is much more muted, but it’s there even if it’s been curiously overlooked by initial audiences (and critics). But it’s in the deliberately small scale and intimate dramatic scenes in Cake that Aniston is able to convey a completely naturalistic and unaffected performance style. As wonderful as the supporting cast here is (especially the luminous Barraza), Aniston is the main ingredient in this particular offering, and she offers both spice and substance as she details Claire’s tortured trek toward better physical and mental health.

(Note: For a somewhat less positive take on Cake, see my colleague Brian Orndorf's theatrical review here.)

Cake Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cake is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.42:1. Shot digitally with the Arri Alexa, Cake has some rather subtle and interesting color grading going on, elements which add a slightly green or yellow tint to the proceedings at times (see screenshots 1, 4 and 17). That only makes "natural" looking sequences pop with even more vividness (see screenshot 19). Sharpness and clarity remain generally very strong throughout this presentation, though occasional moments like Anna Kendrick's initial pool scene can look a bit less well defined. Close-ups reveal nice fine detail on items like the series of frumpy sweaters Claire wears or in fact the scars that criss cross her face. There are no issues with image instability and no problems with compression artifacts.

Cake Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Believe it or not, Cake's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 actually employs blasts of LFE—more than once, in fact, as Claire repeatedly awakens with a start from various bad dreams. These moments give this otherwise fairly sedate soundtrack jolts of sonic energy, but the entire mix offers good detail in terms of well placed ambient environmental sounds. There is good differentiation in ambient reverb in spaces like Claire's cloistered bedroom compared to the echoing chamber where she gets her water therapy. Dialogue is cleanly presented and has moments of good directionality. Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range is surprisingly wide for this type of film.

Cake Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Many Layers of Cake (1080p; 3:33) is a brief but interesting piece profiling stunt woman Stacy Courtney, who herself suffered a debilitating accident which forced her to make some significant life changes. There's a bit too much of the self serving "Jennifer is incredible" content here.


• The Icing on the Cake: Meet the Cast (1080p; 3:28) is another brief piece, this more of an EPK offering interviews with cast and crew.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:24)

Cake Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I kind of wish one of the marketing gurus handling Cake would have labeled it a comedy, for the film's pitch black humor actually was one of its chief pleasures for me personally. With that in mind, and in no way meant ironically (or of course pejoratively), Cake features Jennifer Aniston giving one of her finest comedic performances—as well as one of her finest dramatic ones. The film has some narrative hiccups and is perhaps ultimately too sanguine about it all given Claire's roiling unease with both her body and her psyche, but Cake is bittersweet fare that has some wonderful moments. Technical merits are very strong, though supplements are on the meager side. Recommended.