Cake (2005 film)

Last updated
Cake
Cakefilmposter1.jpg
Directed by Nisha Ganatra
Written by Tassie Cameron
Produced by Miranda de Pencier
Starring Heather Graham
David Sutcliffe
Sandra Oh
Cheryl Hines
Bruce Gray
Keram Malicki-Sánchez
Sarah Chalke
Taye Diggs
Cinematography Gregory Middleton
Edited by Mike Munn
Music by Andrew Lockington
Distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date
  • 2 December 2005 (2005-12-02)(Canada)
Running time
94 minutes
Country Canada
LanguageEnglish

Cake is a 2005 romantic comedy film directed by Nisha Ganatra. It was released on December 2, 2005 in Canada and is rated R for language and sexual content. It stars Heather Graham as Pippa, David Sutcliffe as Ian, and Taye Diggs as Hemingway.

Contents

Plot

The film follows the life of Pippa McGee (Heather Graham) as she takes a giant step between the ages of 29 and 30, which involves growing up, becoming responsible, and discovering true love.

Pippa is a freelance travel writer who, after enjoying holidays in a Mexicanized Pamplona (Spain), comes home for a friend's wedding. She then finds herself running her father's wedding magazine while he recovers from a heart attack. Not only does Pippa have to run the magazine Wedding Bells, but she also has to save it from the chopping block. The future of the magazine is at risk as hungry vultures wait to take over her father's media conglomerate.

Pippa and her strait-laced father have never truly gotten along since her mother died. To complicate things, Pippa becomes involved in a love triangle with her father's right-hand man Ian (David Sutcliffe) and the free-spirited photographer Hemingway Jones (Taye Diggs).

The story is completed by a cast of token friends, Lulu (Sandra Oh), Jane (Sarah Chalke), and Rachel (Sabrina Grdevich) who provide Pippa with the moral support she needs to get the job done, both in her love life and in her editor job.

Cast

Reception

Jen Johans of Film Intuition states that earlier in the film, the protagonist is a bit of an 'entitled princess', but once shifting her perception from viewing her as an airhead blonde stereotype to one of a Vince Vaughn style from Wedding Crashers, she becomes likeable once again. She believes the reason Graham seems so alienating in the film is because "Graham is playing a traditionally male role—a man who hates weddings aside from getting drunk and laid, someone who hates relationships that last longer than the initial few trysts that make one weak in the knees, a beatnik-like world traveler with a rich dad who has never worked a day in her life. Once this disconcerting character is identified, Grahams' usual liability sinks back in and we grow to enjoy watching her...". [1] She goes on to say the film is cliché ridden, with likeable costars such as Sandra Oh.

Scott Weinberg of DVD Talk states "Cake is so conventionally sweet and airy that it could give diabetes to King Kong." [2] He also believes it was adequately directed and blandly written, with inconsistent humour, and nothing an audience hasn't seen before. He gives the film 2 out of 5 stars on content, 3 and a half stars out of five on video, two and a half out of five for extras, and only one and a half on its replay ability.

David Nusair of Film Reviews gives the film two out of four stars. He states that "Cake is a cute but utterly inconsequential romantic comedy that benefits greatly from the uniformly charismatic performances, though the predictable trajectory of the storyline - coupled with a sense of humor that'd be more at home in a sitcom - cements the film's status as an instantly forgettable piece of work." [3] He believes the film has a made-for-TV feeling to it, and feels the screenplay is a bit difficult to sit through.

John McKay of the Telegraph-Journal; Saint John, N.B. published his review on November 30, 2005. He appreciates the movie and its humour, as well as appreciating the fact that it is Canadian made and proud, referencing Toronto and its surrounding area. In his review, he states "Yes, it smacks of being a chick flick, one that flirts dangerously with conventional theories, that monogamy and marriage are good, and freedom from commitment is bad." [4] Quoting Heather Graham, the film's star, on wedding pressure, she says there's a lot of societal pressure on women, while men get a pass. "Oh, it's the biggest thing in your life, who you are going to marry, you know? In some ways it is important, in other ways you feel like you want to rebel against it." [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Graham</span> American actress

Heather Graham is an American actress. After appearing in television commercials, her first starring role in a feature film came with the teen comedy License to Drive (1988), followed by the critically acclaimed film Drugstore Cowboy (1989). She then played supporting roles on the television series Twin Peaks (1991), and in films such as Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and Swingers (1996). She gained critical praise for her role as "Rollergirl" in the film Boogie Nights (1997). This led to major roles in the comedy films Bowfinger and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Oh</span> Canadian and American actress

Sandra Miju Oh is a Canadian and American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Rita Wu on the HBO comedy Arliss (1996–2002), Dr. Cristina Yang on the ABC medical drama series Grey's Anatomy (2005–2014) and Eve Polastri in the spy thriller series Killing Eve (2018–2022). She has received two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2019, Time magazine named Oh one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

<i>Go</i> (1999 film) 1999 film by Doug Liman

Go is a 1999 American crime comedy film written by John August and directed by Doug Liman, with intertwining plots involving three sets of characters. The film stars William Fichtner, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, Sarah Polley, and Scott Wolf and features Taye Diggs, Breckin Meyer, Timothy Olyphant, Desmond Askew, Jane Krakowski, J. E. Freeman, and Melissa McCarthy in her film debut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Chalke</span> Canadian actress

Sarah Louise Christine Chalke is a Canadian actress and model. She is known for portraying Elliot Reid on the NBC/ABC comedy series Scrubs, the second Becky Conner on the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Stella Zinman on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and Beth Smith on Adult Swim's adult animated science-fiction series Rick and Morty. She also had a recurring role on the third season of the ABC/TBS sitcom Cougar Town. She has done voice acting for the Netflix series Paradise PD and was a star cast member in Firefly Lane, which premiered on Netflix in February 2021. As of November 2021, Chalke voices Stella, the tactical officer in the Netflix series Dogs in Space.

<i>The Guru</i> (2002 film) 2002 British film

The Guru is a 2002 sex comedy film written by Tracey Jackson and directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer. The film centers on a dance teacher who comes to the United States from India to pursue a normal career but incidentally stumbles into a brief but high-profile career as a sex guru, a career based on a philosophy he learns from a pornographic actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taye Diggs</span> American actor

Scott Leo "Taye" Diggs is an American stage and film actor. He is known for his roles in the Broadway musicals Rent and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the TV series Private Practice (2007–2013), Murder in the First (2014–2016), and All American (2018–2023), and the films How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Brown Sugar, Chicago, Malibu's Most Wanted (2003), and The Best Man (1999) and its sequel, The Best Man Holiday (2013).

<i>Santas Slay</i> 2005 film

Santa's Slay is a 2005 Christmas slasher black comedy film written and directed by David Steiman, a former assistant to Brett Ratner; Ratner served as a producer. The film stars Bill Goldberg, Douglas Smith, Emilie de Ravin, Robert Culp, Saul Rubinek, Dave Thomas, Rebecca Gayheart, Chris Kattan, and Fran Drescher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Pratt</span> Canadian actor and model

Victoria Ainslie Pratt is a Canadian actress, author, and fitness model.

<i>How Stella Got Her Groove Back</i> 1998 American romantic comedy-drama film

How Stella Got Her Groove Back is a 1998 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan, adapted from Terry McMillan's best-selling 1996 novel of the same title. The film stars Angela Bassett, Taye Diggs, Whoopi Goldberg, and Regina King. The original music score was composed by Michel Colombier.

<i>Brown Sugar</i> (2002 film) 2002 film

Brown Sugar is a 2002 American romantic comedy film written by Michael Elliott and Rick Famuyiwa, directed by Famuyiwa, and starring Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan. The film is a story of a lifelong friends, A&R Andre and Editor-in-Chief Sidney. The two can attribute their friendship and the launch of their careers to a single, seminal childhood moment – the day they discovered hip-hop on a New York street corner. Now some 15 years later, as they lay down the tracks toward their futures, hip-hop isn't the only thing that keeps them coming back to that moment on the corner.

<i>The Best Man</i> (1999 film) 1999 American film

The Best Man is a 1999 American comedy drama film written and directed by Malcolm D. Lee in his directorial debut. It was produced by 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, with Lee's cousin, Spike Lee, serving as producer. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Taye Diggs and Nia Long, with the debut of Regina Hall.

<i>Drum</i> (2004 film) 2004 film by Zola Maseko

Drum is a 2004 film based on the life of South African investigative journalist Henry Nxumalo, who worked for Drum magazine, called "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa". It was director Zola Maseko's first film and deals with the issues of apartheid and the forced removal of residents from Sophiatown. The film was originally to be a six-part television series called Sophiatown Short Stories, but Maseko could not get the funding. The lead roles of Henry Nxumalo and Drum main photographer Jürgen Schadeberg were played by American actors Taye Diggs and Gabriel Mann, while most of the rest of the cast were South African actors.

<i>Day Break</i> Television program

Day Break is a television program for which one 13-episode season was produced. The series starred Taye Diggs as Detective Brett Hopper, who is framed for the murder of Assistant District Attorney Alberto Garza. Due to a time loop, Hopper lives the same day over and over. The series revolves around his attempt to solve the mystery of the murder, and find out who is behind the conspiracy to frame him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Simpson</span> Fictional character from the Australian Channel Seven soap opera Home and Away

Sophie Dean is a fictional character from the Australian Channel Seven soap opera Home and Away, played by Rebekah Elmaloglou. She debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 23 January 1990 and appeared as a regular until 1993. Elmaloglou returned to filming when Sophie made subsequent guest appearances in 2002, 2003 and 2005.

Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She rose to prominence for her role as teenage Judy Garland in the critically acclaimed television film Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her other notable film roles were in The Good Shepherd (2006), Sybil (2007), Into the Woods (2014) and The Invitation (2015).

<i>Legally Blondes</i> 2009 film by Savage Steve Holland

Legally Blondes is a 2009 American direct-to-DVD comedy television film. Filmed as a pilot to a cancelled television series, it is a spin-off of the Legally Blonde film series. It was directed by Savage Steve Holland and co-produced by Reese Witherspoon, who played Elle Woods in the first two Legally Blonde films. The film stars Camilla and Rebecca Rosso as Elle's British twin cousins.

<i>The Private Lives of Pippa Lee</i> 2009 film by Rebecca Miller

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is a 2009 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Rebecca Miller. The screenplay is based on her novel of the same name. It features an ensemble cast including Robin Wright, Alan Arkin, Maria Bello, Monica Bellucci, Blake Lively, Julianne Moore, Keanu Reeves, and Winona Ryder.

<i>Chupacabra: Dark Seas</i> 2005 American film

Chupacabra: Dark Seas is a 2005 Syfy channel original film directed by John Shepphird and starring John Rhys-Davies, Giancarlo Esposito, Dylan Neal, and Chelan Simmons. It was filmed on location in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

<i>Baggage Claim</i> (film) 2013 film by David E. Talbert

Baggage Claim is a 2013 American romantic comedy film written and directed by David E. Talbert, based on his book of the same name. It stars Paula Patton, Derek Luke, Taye Diggs, Jill Scott, Adam Brody, Djimon Hounsou, Jenifer Lewis and Ned Beatty in his final film role. The film premiered on September 27, 2013.

<i>Set It Up</i> 2018 American film

Set It Up is a 2018 American romantic comedy film directed by Claire Scanlon, written by Katie Silberman, and starring Zoey Deutch, Glen Powell, Taye Diggs, and Lucy Liu. The plot follows two overworked assistants who try to set up their demanding bosses on dates in New York City. The film was released on June 15, 2018, by Netflix, to favorable reviews.

References

  1. "Cake (2005)". reviews.filmintuition.com. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  2. "Cake". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  3. "Cake (2005) - A Review by David Nusair". www.reelfilm.com. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  4. 1 2 McKay, John (November 30, 2005). "New Canadian romantic comedy, Cake, stars Heather Graham". Telegraph-Journal. ProQuest   423260802.