StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
SnoopyStyle
Pippa McGee (Heather Graham) is a globe-trotting travel writer. She comes home to be her friend Jane's bridesmaid along with best friend Lulu (Sandra Oh). When her father has a heart attack, she has to take over his magazine Wedding Bells. It's the last magazine she's likely to read and she dismisses marriage. She has a love triangle with photographer Hemingway Jones (Taye Diggs) and her father's right hand man Ian Grey (David Sutcliffe).This feels and looks more like a TV movie. The bridal magazine world looks unreal. Heather Graham is not good rom-com material. She's flailing around in this movie. None of it is funny. The romantic chemistry isn't there. This is the most disappointing because these are really beautiful human specimens. This is a traditional rom-com done poorly.
aggrobinson
Dear oh dear, its hard to accept that drivel like this can actually made into a film. I guess there will always be people who like completely predictable and boring romantic comedies such as this one. Heather Graham's acting is at times laughable and I think she only gets by in the business due to her beauty. Comedies such as Notting Hill,Wedding crashers, about a boy, sliding doors or the break up are examples of where a rom com can work by trying something a little different to attempt to surprise a viewer but films such as this should not be made. Oh well, maybe Hollywood will learn someday!!!! Im not sure why i watched this film as ratings were pretty low and it certainly didn't appeal to me but i always like to give a film a chance to respond to its critics and its always good to see it for yourself and then make a judgement. HOwever in this case I would have to say do not bother with this poor attempt at a romantic comedy.
lisamaria
This movie was so boring I didn't know if I should cry or sleep.The idea of an independent single girl took no wind at any point as this girl simply gave in to everything and everyone, instead of showing any of spunk and spirit she was supposed to have. I am not entirely sure what the message here was supposed to be - happiness lies in meringue wedding? The originality of the side-characters was expressed through their "weird" appearances. The "baddie" was a wedding-crazed spinster. The conflict? - non-existing. The characters didn't grow or learn, they simply gave in in front of the convention.Uninspiring, and I'm afraid, very very American in its blind idolisation of the white-wedding bliss.
anhedonia
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.
