The Cake Eaters (2007)

Two families are brought together by the return of one family's son -- a reunion that conjures up old ghosts and issues that must be addressed.

Director:

Mary Stuart Masterson

Writer:

Jayce Bartok (screenplay)

Stars:

Elizabeth Ashley, Jayce Bartok, Bruce Dern

4 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Elizabeth Ashley	...	Marg Kaminski
Jayce Bartok	...	Guy Kimbrough
Bruce Dern	...	Easy Kimbrough
Miriam Shor	...	Stephanie
Aaron Stanford	...	Dwight 'Beagle' Kimbrough
Kristen Stewart	...	Georgia Kaminski
Talia Balsam	...	Violet Kaminski
Tom Cavanagh	...	Lloyd
Melissa Leo	...	Ceci Kimbrough
Jesse L. Martin	...	Judd
Avery Rak	...	Young Guy
Andrew George Jr.	...	Young Beagle (as Andrew George)
Dan McCabe	...	Teenage Boy #1
Conor Romero	...	Teenage Boy #2
Jeffrey Spiegel	...	Teenage Boy #3

Storyline

'The Cake Eaters' is a quirky, small town, ensemble drama that explores the lives of two interconnected families coming to terms with love in the face of loss. Living in rural America, The Kimbrough family is a normally odd bunch; Easy, the patriarch and local butcher, is grieving over the recent loss of his wife, Ceci, while hiding a secret ongoing affair for years; Beagle, his youngest son who was left to care for his ailing mother, works in the local high school cafeteria by day but has a burning passion inside that manifests itself through painting street signs; and the eldest son, Guy, has been away from the family for years while pursuing his rock star dream in the big city until the day he learns of his mother's passing and that he's missed the funeral. Upon Guy's return home, relationships between the characters begin to unravel; Beagle's pent up emotions connect with Georgia Kaminski, a terminally ill teenage girl wanting to experience love before it's too late; Easy's long ...

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Plot Keywords:

mistress | ex boyfriend ex girlfriend relationship | photographer | handicap sex | loss of mother | 

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Taglines:

life can be as sweet as you make it...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some language and sexual material involving a teen

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 March 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Doces Encontros

Filming Locations:

Catskill, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

57th & Irving Productions, 7th Floor, The, Vinyl Foote Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min 100 min (European Film Market)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

After Georgia spends the night in bed with Beagle, when she sits up to leave the bed, you can see bra strap marks on her back. Supposedly, she had been naked all night, so she shouldn't have any bra strap marks.

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Quotes

Stephanie: Hey gorgeous. Alright, so what are we going to do today, trim the ends, keep the length?
Georgia: I want something radical. Sexy.
Stephanie: Well I can do radical sexy. What's the special occasion?
Georgia: I have a date.
Stephanie: You have a date? Sweetie that is so great! Is he cute?
Georgia: Yeah. He's interesting.
Stephanie: Interesting. Is it love?
Georgia: I'm not really looking to fall in love right now.
Stephanie: Why not? There's nothing like your first love. Trust me.
Georgia: I just want to see what it's like.
[...]

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Soundtracks

"As Shadows Do"
Written by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater
Performed by Lauren Pritchard

User Reviews

Mature, thoughtful drama

In a backwater town in upstate New York, Georgia Kaminski (Kristin Stewart), a teenage girl with a terminal nervous disorder, finds herself torn between the frivolity of her grandmother (Elizabeth Ashley) and overly protective mother who, in the hopes of bringing awareness and humanity to her daughter's disease, takes controversial photos of Georgia in the nude. Several miles away, aspiring musician Guy Kimbrough (Jayce Bartok) returns to the house of estranged father Easy (Bruce Dern) and younger brother Beagle (Aaron Stanford), trying to hide the secret of his failure to make it big. Easy is the town butcher, recently widowed, with secrets of his own, while Beagle, the kid who never left home, has surrendered his life to the care of his father and late mother, and struggles to find an identity of his own. Kaminskis and Kimbroughs conjoin dramatically when Georgia, hoping to find love in her life, and to find it before it's too late, courts the affection of Beagle, whom she meets at an outdoor flea market. The innocent but contentious relationship causes a series of reckonings, as both families are forced to contend with the heaps of emotional baggage that have piled up in their lives.

Masterson keeps it real with this one. The drama is understated, the tension is subtle, and the characters are both distinct and believable. Hats off to Kristin Stewart, who manages to be a dozen things at once – tragic but not pitiful, strong, endearing, funny, unconventionally sexy, and none of the clichés we've grown to associate with any of Hollywood's notorious mental illnesses. Remaining hats to Bruce Dern, a long-time favorite of mine, who keeps a lid on things and never fails to command our respect, even as his character slides deeper into dubious behavior.

In many ways, the film's strengths almost become its undoing. The sustained, understated quality of the storytelling prevents the movie from having any kind of real climax, and the immaculate tension set up in the first hour of the movie never quite pays off in a way I would like. That said, it's still a beautiful film, a capstone of movie-making maturity, and deserves the widest audience possible.