Cake (2005/I)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Nisha Ganatra

Writer:

Tassie Cameron (written by)

Release Date:

20 October 2005 (Israel)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Have your life and eat it, too.

Plot:

A travel writer (Graham) who begrudgingly assumes control of her father's wedding magazine finds the new experience might just change her take on love.

Plot Keywords:

Gay Personal Assistant | Interracial Relationship

Cast

Heather Graham	...	Pippa McGee
David Sutcliffe	...	Ian
Taye Diggs	...	Hemingway Jones
Sandra Oh	...	Lulu
Keram Malicki-Sánchez	...	Frank
Cheryl Hines	...	Roxanne
Bruce Gray	...	Malcolm McGee
Sarah Chalke	...	Jane
Sabrina Grdevich	...	Rachel
Michael McMurtry	...	Luke
Amy Price-Francis	...	Sasha
Reagan Pasternak	...	Sydney
Jefferson Brown	...	Clifford
Suzanne Cyr	...	Suzanne
Frank Chiesurin	...	Chad

MPAA:

Rated R for some language and sexual content.

Runtime:

94 min | Israel:95 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-3 | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Cedar Point, Tiny Township, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Cake Productions Inc.

Trivia:

Director Nisha Ganatra was hired to direct this film with strict adherence to the script by Tassie Cameron. The Producer, Miranda DePencier hired Tassie to write and developed this story based on her own life experience.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Pippa reads her letter to the bartender, he comments that one of her sentences is a run-on. While slightly verbose, it is not in fact a run-on sentence. Her grammar is correct.

Movie Connections:

References Dr. No (1962)

Soundtrack:

Anne Said

Oh, Heather!

In a perfect world, Heather Graham would be as bankable as, say, Julia Roberts.

Graham certainly is prettier than the Pretty Woman, has a better sense of comedic timing and, let's face it, has eyes you could disappear into. (Any straight guy who says otherwise is, well, probably Republican.) Trouble is, Graham isn't going to be America's sweetheart - I don't know if she wants to be - if she keeps making films such as "Cake."

I realize Graham executive-produced this film. What was she thinking? Surely she saw Tassie Cameron's script as just another run-of-the-mill romantic comedy replete with the clichéd love triangle and tired stereotypes.

Perhaps Graham needs a new agent - especially after the "Emily's Reasons Why Not" debacle. She has some good films on her resume -"Bowfinger" (1999), "Boogie Nights" (1997), "Two Girls and a Guy" (1997), "The Ballad of Little Jo" (1993) and "Drugstore Cowboy" (1989). But the roles that stand out are Rollergirl and Felicity Shagwell and it's the clunkers that seem to define her - "Lost in Space" (1998), "Say It Ain't So" (2001) and "Killing Me Softly" (2002). Now, add "Cake" to the mix.

Cameron and director Nisha Ganatra don't even bother masking their film's hackneyed plot. Which is a shame because they have a talented cast. There's Graham, Taye Diggs, Cheryl Hines, Sandra Oh (who's terrific on TV's "Grey's Anatomy") and Sarah Chalke, who knows what it's like to do genuinely funny comedy on TV's "Scrubs," which, for my money, is the best half-hour on TV.

Graham, much like Roberts, isn't a masterful dramatic actress. Her turn as English hooker Mary Kelly in "From Hell" (2001) was admirable, albeit miscast. But Graham clearly knows how to play comedy. She just needs good material. Her nine-episode stint as Dr. Molly Clock on "Scrubs" proved as much.

There's never a moment in "Cake" when you think, "Oh, this is different." Cameron's script is so atrociously lazy that she never bothers to include even the slightest of surprises. Poor Graham flays about buoyantly in a valiant, yet futile, attempt to elicit laughs out of this bad script.

In "Cake," she's Pippa McGee, a spunky, care-free travel writer suddenly forced to take over her dad's magazine - a bridal periodical. There's some humor in the decor of the magazine's offices as this sprightly, independent feminist tries to handle things. But the story is so clunky and her two love interest so unreal and dull, there's not even a modicum of sense to this whole enterprise. Pippa spends such little time with the men that it's asking a lot of us to believe either would work.

As much fun as it is to see the luminescent Graham bounce around, she certainly deserves better than this mediocre fare.