Review: Jennifer Aniston's 'Cake' Is A Recipe For Self Pity

There’s been some recent talk about Jennifer Aniston’s performance in “Cake” as a potential dark horse for a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Allow us to put a stop this. Aniston digs deeper than she has in recent years, encroaching on territory much darker than people are accustomed to seeing her in, but thanks to a bloated screenplay from Patrick Tobin, and by-the-numbers direction from Daniel Barnz, “Cake” wallows in self-pity too much to sustain any true merit. This holds true for her performance, even though we still recommend the film to fans of her work because there are occasional moments of crackling wit and emotional investment.

Claire Simmons (Aniston) attends a chronic pain support group as part of her therapy for getting over an overwhelming tragic event in her life. She is a broken woman, both physically, as presented with scars all over her body, and psychologically, seen by how she reacts to fellow group member Nina’s (Anna Kendrick) suicide and how she treats...