Cake
| Release Date: January 23, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
26
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzJan 21, 2015
Aniston works so hard to avoid sentimentality that it's disappointing when it creeps into the film. Director Daniel Barnz casts everything in a blue-yellow light that oversells the melancholy mood. Read full review
83
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 12, 2014
Mostly thanks to Barnz's direction and Aniston's performance it all starts to gel. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 22, 2015
What makes Aniston, of all actresses, especially right for Cake is that her comedy has always had a certain ruefulness underlying it, an understanding of life’s limits, a kind of glum acceptance. So the transition into sadness and desolation is a natural step for her. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJan 22, 2015
There are some who may lament Aniston’s choice to step out of her comfortable comedy shoes and little black dresses, but the decision was sound: The best reason to see Cake — the sort of film that makes your life look pretty good in comparison — is to watch her deliver her best dramatic performance to date. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJan 21, 2015
Depression is a tricky subject for a movie aimed at a target audience that is depressed enough already. But this one justifies its challenges to feel-good escapism through honesty and integrity. Read full review
70
TheWrapInkoo KangJan 23, 2015
A thoughtful and frequently moving drama that insightfully illuminates what it’s like to live with illness and agony at least as well as last year’s other Best Actress vehicles like “Wild,” “Still Alice,” and “Two Days, One Night” do. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaJan 23, 2015
The one humanizing slice of Cake that is tolerable is Claire’s relationship with her Mexican housekeeper, Silvana (the terrific Adrianna Barraza, who was Oscar-nominated for 2006’s “Babel”). Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 22, 2015
I wish the movie were messier, more surprising. But as with most of what we see, made on small budgets and large: The performances are not the problem. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 21, 2015
A comedy that barely flirts with funny and a grim weeper that never quite raises a tear, Cake has one thing going for it — Jennifer Aniston. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 21, 2015
If you can't see where this is going, you've probably never seen a movie before. But the script plods on, complete with an ending that futilely tries to tidy up the scenario strands. Miraculously, Aniston maintains our rooting interest. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerFeb 17, 2015
Jennifer Aniston lifts an addiction drama with a committed but never showy performance. It’s a pity the rest of the film can’t cut as deep. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJan 23, 2015
Director Daniel Barnz's soft-play indie drama is a compassionate but emotionally raw film, one that traffics in such thoughtful ideas as personal redemption and emotional resurrection. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaFeb 2, 2015
Directed in moody, downbeat tones by Daniel Barnz, Cake doesn't know when to stop piling on the angst. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 23, 2015
One of those movies designed as an Oscar make-over for its star. It didn’t work in this case. Aniston was not nominated for Best Actress, perhaps because the film is so obvious about what it’s up to. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 22, 2015
True, Aniston does maybe her best film work to date in Cake. But it’s definitely not her best film. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJan 22, 2015
Between a string of post-Friends dismal rom-coms, Aniston has succeeded in these kinds of grownup roles every few years. Here, she negotiates the character’s quirks and contradictions competently, but nothing short of a rewrite from scratch could make Cake palatable. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisJan 22, 2015
It’s the sort of well-intentioned independent effort that can make criticism feel like overkill. There’s nothing to hate, nothing to love. The movie’s greatest virtue is that it gives Ms. Aniston a little room to play against the somewhat sardonic tough-cookie type that she deploys in vulgar comedies. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 22, 2015
[Jennifer Aniston's] performance in Cake is rightly being praised as a dramatic breakthrough (no one doubts her comedic chops). She's really good. It's just too bad the movie does her no favors. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithJan 21, 2015
Gunning for the near-annual Ugly Makeup Oscar, Aniston proves, as always, a modestly gifted actress, only this time with scars and weedy hair. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJenni MillerJan 21, 2015
Director Daniel Barnz, who also made the unbearably earnest "Won’t Back Down," never wavers in his more-is-more conviction. Perhaps with a better script and in surer hands, Cake could have been salvaged. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossJan 21, 2015
At the end of the day, Cake at least stands better as a showcase for the potential dramatic chops of the once and future Rachel Green than it does as the latest life-affirming indie. Hopefully, the next time Aniston goes fishing for awards, she uses a more convincing breed of bait to do so. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonJan 20, 2015
Aniston gives the character personality and heft, but the script gives the character nothing to do. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianJan 20, 2015
The film is a study of grief that drowns in a cold bath of grim self-pity. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 31, 2014
Aniston's portrayal feels honest, but the film doesn't rise to the level of her performance. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenDec 31, 2014
It's a letdown that the film itself, written by Patrick Tobin and directed by Daniel Barnz, doesn't take half the chances its leading lady does and is content to paddle around the shallows rather than plunge into the deep end. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinSep 12, 2014
Aniston submits an honest, sturdy performance. However, the film, directed by Daniel Barnz (Phoebe in Wonderland, Beastly) and written by Patrick Tobin, is less emotionally potent than it wants to be. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangSep 12, 2014
To be sure, Aniston leads with her scowl here, in the sort of performance that often gets called “brave” but is, in fact, more accurately described as a well-executed change of pace. Read full review
42
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicSep 12, 2014
There are moments when the fabrication behind Claire’s arc breaks to reveal a real person, and the filmmaker’s have Aniston to thank for this, because it’s certainly not the bland dialogue or unremarkable events. Read full review
40
The TelegraphMike McCahillFeb 19, 2015
[Aniston's] the one element keeping this unexceptional dramedy halfway watchable. Read full review
40
CineVueJulia AlexanderFeb 18, 2015
Barnz's Cake could have been an intriguing look into the world of chronic pain and depression, but trying to be a jack-of-all-trades ruined the film and left it a master of none. Read full review
40
Total FilmKate StablesFeb 17, 2015
The drugs don’t work – but thankfully Aniston does – in this slight but sly portrait of pain-meds hell, which wallows in self-pity when it should be grabbing our sympathy. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 23, 2015
Actually, the whole movie is grim — drearily so. Read full review
40
The DissolveSheila O’MalleyJan 22, 2015
The script has a refreshing take on the expectation that sick people should be good sports, and fit a pat, inspirational narrative about the blessings of illness. But the way the story is told, with symbols, dream sequences, flashbacks, and coy withholding, makes that setup manipulative and overdetermined. It tries too hard, without being as deep as it thinks. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJan 21, 2015
Aniston is fine, and sometimes good even, in director Daniel Barnz’s maudlin and overly obvious drama. She has layered moments of sympathy as a woman afflicted with chronic pain. And unlike in the bad rom-coms she does too often, Aniston absolutely shows some serious chops. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJan 20, 2015
Cake chokes you on its self-seriousness, even as it trots out potentially interesting supporting players. Read full review
40
The GuardianCatherine ShoardSep 12, 2014
Aniston’s drab-act is diverting, but it’s not enough to sweeten a character who is one hell of a pill. Read full review
38
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJan 22, 2015
Here Aniston suffers every manipulative cliché and contrivance in the tearjerker playbook. She works hard, and it’s painful to watch. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 22, 2015
There’s no doubt that Aniston deserves more roles like this one but, with luck, in less maudlin, more surprising movies. Read full review
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