'The Cake Eaters' - film review

Grade: B- Cynics may shamelessly downsize Kristen Stewart’s pains as some newfound “pop” novelty, or happenstance – although, her intellect, charm, and overall splendor, compel us to mull over subtle inadequacies, affecting morality and futility, without our actual awareness of such things – establishing her as the “millennial” generation’s actress (of the Winona Ryder set - for the laymen in all of us.)

The Cake Eaters is a modest effort – leaving one yearning for a less “imperfect” Kristen Stewart, since all her charm has been cloaked by Georgia’s rare handicap, known as Friedreich's Ataxia. The performance may seem perfunctory, although, Stewart effortlessly outshines all in this ensemble drama, set in “any small-town USA.” Stewart’s approach is sensible, mannered, and highly articulate – relegated to an actor of a lesser caliber may have turned such an act into blatant award’s fodder.

Moreover, Duncan Sheik provides the delicate, nuanced score to the film. In retrospect – my attraction to both Stewart and Sheik glared my unremitting foresight that the film would be average – nothing more, nothing less. Yet, there is an underlying charm to such an effort that denies one to disparage such a film.

I presume that in Hollywood, there is the unwritten rule that fellow actor’s must, by no means, rebuff any offer from a fellow actor-turned director, for niceness’s sake - - this is Mary Stuart Masterson’s directorial debut.