Film Review: Cake

Daniel Barnz’s Cake blends drama with black comedy. The film hinges on a strong performance by lead Jennifer Aniston, which she pulls off with aplomb.

Claire becomes fascinated by the suicide of one of the women in her chronic pain support group. As she delves deeper into the circumstances of the suicide, Claire needs to confront her own tragedy…

Cake is a drama with flecks of dark humour. Screenwriter Patrick Tobin focuses on protagonist Claire, a misanthropic character who is buried in physical and emotional pain. Rather than dealing with her problems stoically, Claire lashes out at those around her. The character is well drawn; viewers will be able to sympathise with her pain and understand her attitude.

The narrative of Cake is on the light side. The film functions more as a character study than anything else. Other characters appear for Claire to rally against, or to open up part of the tragedy that Claire is trying to avoid. The backstory of what has happened to Claire is not revealed until late on in the film, despite hints being dropped along the way. This works well to retain the audience’s attention; Claire has a lot to be angry and frustrated about, but the full extent is not made clear until much later.

The second half of Cake is more sentimental than the first, with Claire reluctantly facing up to issues. Director Daniel Barnz’s film never becomes schmaltzy, but there is a change in tone. The device of the hallucinations functions to provide black humour and for Claire to elucidate her feelings. The device is partially successful, although sometimes it seems as if the need for Claire to vocalise her feelings is overplayed.

Jennifer Aniston offers one of the strongest performances of her career. She is completely believable as the acerbic Claire. Good support is provided by Adriana Barraza, whilst Felicity Huffman and Lucy Punch are decent in minor roles.

Cake entertains throughout, even if it is not wholly satisfying. The film is certainly worth a watch for Aniston’s performance.

Cake is available on Blu-Ray and DVD from 29th June 2015.

Film Review: Bad Teacher

Cameron Diaz is on top form in entertaining comedy Bad Teacher. It is definitely one of the better recent adverts for females taking on central comedic roles, proving that women can hold their own and should not be confined to cheesy, predictable rom-coms. Unless they are Jennifer Aniston.

Elizabeth Halsey is foul-mouthed, unprofessional teacher, concerned only with finding a rich man to marry. When her fiancé dumps her, Elizabeth is forced to go back to her old job. She sets her sights on rich new teacher Scott Delacorte, but her behaviour attracts the attention of the successful colleague Amy Squirrel…

Given the premise, Bad Teacher could have gone down a similar path to School of Rock. Thankfully, Jake Kasdan’s film eschew this option, choosing to focus on a character that does not want to redeem herself or help others. The aim of Bad Teacher is to generate laughs; other aspects are secondary to this.

What works so well in Bad Teacher is the frequency of the humour. Comedy in the film balances carefully between being accessible and being raucous. Jokes are not too close to the bone as to offend anyone but the most sensitive of souls, yet humour is often garnered from shocking or surprising comments.

As such, Bad Teacher exudes an admirable attitude. It is not offensive for shock value; the humour more often than not is better than this. Rather, the crassness is present simply because it is genuinely funny, immature as this may be. Although there is a romantic angle, this never overshadows the humour. Plenty of comedies feature more serious or poignant scenes, which can become overly sentimental if not executed well. Writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg avoid this trap in Bad Teacher. Any moments of realisation or emotion are handled with the lightest touch; there are no heavy-handed scenes where the protagonist realises the error of her ways. The film is all the better because of this.

Cameron Diaz is great as Elizabeth. The actress clearly seems to be having a lot of fun with the role, and the style of comedy suits Diaz very well. She gets fantastic support from most of the cast. Lucy Punch is fantastic as Amy, while Jason Segel is wisely cast as gym teacher Russell. Segel’s role is fairly minor but provides sufficient humour. Justin Timberlake is a lot of fun as Scott, and is given some great lines.

Bad Teacher is not the greatest comedy ever made. It is, however, great fun and a lot better than many of the other comedies released this year.

Film Review: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is not one of Woody Allen’s finest films. Considering the writer-director’s cinematic flair however, the film is still a cut above many other comedy romances.

After forty years of marriage, Alfie leaves his wife Helena to pursue a younger lifestyle and a younger woman. Meanwhile, their daughter Sally longs to start a family but is having marital problems with her husband, struggling writer Greg. Each of the four encounters new people, which leads to trouble…

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger lacks the charm of some of Allen’s earlier efforts, such as Manhattan Murder Mystery. Nevertheless, the film is still amusing and engaging. Characters are well written, if not always likeable, and the incidents that occur offer humour as well as contemplation.

Allen centres the action on a family, and their liaisons with others. It is very much an ensemble piece, with the four main characters wrangling for screen time with the assorted extras. Some of these side characters appear a little one dimensional, but add comedy and drama to proceedings.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is not as witty as some of Woody Allen’s best scripts. Humour is present however, and it is mostly generated through Helena and the minor characters. There is no distinct Woody Allen character, such as Boris in Whatever Works. Instead, a number of the characters take on the writer-director’s typical neuroses. Most prominent of these is Helena, who likes a drink and appears highly-strung. Elsewhere, Roy is the writer struggling with self-confidence, and attracted to a beautiful young woman. It is perhaps because of this absence of the singular recognisable Allen archetype that the film fails to enamour in the same way as the filmmaker’s best films. It is this character type that often brings the wit, which would explain why You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is not as consistently funny as you would hope.

Allen’s other London-based movies have not been that well received. However, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger fares better than the previous movies set in the city. The film paints a fairly romanticised picture of London; the locations featured are in the more attractive areas of the city. This is not unexpected as gritty realism is not something Allen is known for.

Performances from the cast are excellent overall, and the casting is spot on. Gemma Jones as Helena stands out in particular, while Naomi Watts is convincing as Sally. Lucy Punch is suitably over the top as Charmaine.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is an enjoyable movie, which is underscored by a layer of quiet contemplation. It is definitely worth a watch, even if it is not the film Woody Allen fans were hoping for.