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Cake (2014) is a film about a woman dealing with chronic pain. It opens with a scene at a pain support group, where everyone is sharing their feelings about a member who recently committed suicide. Claire (Jennifer Aniston) gives an acerbic response that gets her kicked out of the group and introduces us to the pain-filled, bitter, sarcastic woman whose story we’re about to watch.

As the story unfolds, we see Claire treating her housekeeper poorly, treating everyone else she encounters poorly, drinking excessively, abusing prescription medications, resorting to illegal means to acquire more medication, hiding pills around her house, turning away her ex-husband, engaging in soulless sex with her gardener, and generally living in misery. She has awkward hallucinations where she talks to the deceased girl discussed in the opening scene, and befriends said girl’s widowed husband for an uncomfortable, twisted form of companionship. While Jennifer Aniston’s performance is spectacular and it’s easy to believe the authenticity of the character’s chronic physical pain, without identifying context clues and some level of assumption, the audience isn’t informed as to the root of Claire’s pain until three-quarters of the way through the film. Those who did figure it out along the way are left wondering why it’s been kept a secret on-screen, and wonder what revelation the movie will offer to compound their discovery - but there isn’t one. The source of her pain becomes the “big reveal,” but by that point it’s been completely obvious for a while.

This woman is in pain, she’s hurting, and she’s trying to deal with it - okay - what else? The movie holds out on what caused her scars and bad attitude. It doesn’t discuss what she’s trying to deal with or what realities she’s failing to accept. She’s just a woman in agony acting miserably to people for an “unknown” reason that the audience likely figured out. Her pain alone is not really enough to drive a plot, and because of that, most of the film doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Simply being curious about whether or not you’ve correctly figured out the root of her pain isn’t enough to hold the film for over an hour, especially when there’s no real reward for correct detection.

The New York Post says:

“Mostly, the movie is sheer contrivance. OK, there is one transcendent instance of strange comedy involving Costco vodka, and a few instances of genuine-seeming anguish. But where does that lead us? It’s not like the film has any insights about grieving or chronic suffering. Claire’s life is a pain in the neck, back, legs, head and heart. So what? ...Everyone around Claire exists only to talk about Claire; even her long-enduring Mexican housekeeper, played by Adriana Barraza, goes home for the night and . . . talks about Claire. Essentially, there is no plot and only one character, so the film’s success rides completely on how we respond to her.

David Ehrlich of Slate furthers this sentiment, saying:

“Cake’s refusal to address the (howlingly predictable) cause of Claire’s pain effectively reduces the grieving process to a parlor game.”