Sometimes it is really obvious when a film’s intentions are
not as advertised. For example, Cake tries to portray itself as a hard
look at an often misunderstood disability: chronic pain. However, the film is clearly meant to be an
award-baiting vehicle by which usually-comedic actress Jennifer Aniston can try
to garner some credibility though a portrayal of a suffering woman. The disingenuousness of the film’s motives
are more readily apparent than in most award bait, as the film does not even
seem to understand the hardship it portrays, much less have anything meaningful
to say about it.
Aniston plays Claire, a woman suffering from chronic pain
who develops a morbid fascination with the suicide of a fellow support group
member. Claire then spends the majority
of the film contemplating suicide, as her pain seems to reach a point of
unbearability. As she develops a
relationship with the widower of the woman who killed herself (and has
psychotic delusions of that woman’s ghost taunting her), Claire’s past starts
to come into focus, revealing a tragedy which emotionally pains her as much as
her physical pain. To those who suffer
chronic pain or know someone who does, that last sentence may spell out to you
the film’s biggest problem: Claire’s chronic pain is impliedly symptomatic of
her emotional trauma, which is an entirely fallacious analysis of how chronic
pain effects people. At the very least,
it muddies the waters: If the point was to explore the issue of chronic pain,
why equally emphasize an emotional trauma?
If the point was to provide a character study of an emotionally
tormented woman, then why make the chronic pain angle the film’s selling
point? At best, this makes the film
thematically confusing; at worst, it makes the film an offense to the people it
claims to represent.
It doesn’t help that Claire is a purposely offensive
character. She is rude and crass to
everyone, even those actively trying to help her, and she only lets up when she
thinks it will serve her needs, usually to get more pain medication. This has the effect of reducing Claire’s entire
personality to one entirely centered on her relationship to her pain. She has no life or hobbies to speak of, nor
does she appear to even have a job. Her
entire identity is couched in her chronic illness, which is a rather
dehumanizing portrayal. This is only
made worse by Aniston’s overacting, riddled with loud moans and cursing so as
to almost make the performance unintentionally comical, were it not for the
offensive undertones implicit in the character’s very conception.
The film has further problems in its portrayal of Claire’s
housekeeper, Silvana. Claire is almost
nothing but nasty and brutish to her overworked and underpaid facsimile of a
nursemaid, and Silvana takes all the abuse with only one self-defensive
outburst in the film’s climax, which is quickly “resolved” without any reason
beyond saintly forgiveness. The film
demonstrates how Silvana sacrifices her time, energy and family life to act as
Claire’s glorified chauffeur, even going so far as to smuggle drugs from Mexico,
but never gives her an adequate reason to take the abuse. This is the docile houseservant trope taken
to its most offensive extremes, effectively making Silvana a plot convenience
to drive Claire from scene to scene and conveying the non-stop verbal abuse
Claire visits upon her as entirely justifiable through her docility.
Cake is a film
that is clearly trying, but it aspires to the wrong goals. Instead of focusing on an often poorly
represented aspect of human suffering and building a smart and considerate
story to bring focus on that issue, Cake
opts instead to start with the concept of providing Jennifer Aniston a platform
to prove to the world how she too can be a dramatic actress, then assembles the
supporting pieces without care or consideration, even to the performance that
acts as the film’s raison d’etre. This is a bad movie. Don’t see it.
Does Jennifer Aniston have what it takes to move beyond her
sitcom-friendly comedic routine? Leave
your thoughts in the comments below.
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