Cake

Romantic comedies usually suck, but I have to admit I was very touched by this film which I randomly got to see at a test screening in Santa Monica. Heather Graham was excellent (yeah, she really was...maybe she can actually act...strange, huh?), the supporting cast is HILARIOUS (HELLO!!!! Sandra Oh, Cheryl Hines, Sarah Chalke and Taye Diggs -- how has this never been in the theater near me?? I keep looking...where the heck is it?), and the story was really sweet and fun. Who doesn't like the idea of a girl choosing between two great looking guys? I don't think it's the best script ever, but the pacing was good, the acting was good, the shots looked nice, and I loved the ending. Very feel good. With heart. Totally worth seeing.

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.

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.

The characters are what you might expect for this type of film, but nonetheless are well-cast and played in good fun.

Things work out mostly like you'd expect, but that doesn't stop it from being a pleasant way to pass the time with a few smiles.

I gave it a 7 because It was a lighthearted way to end my evening and made me feel good.

When you watch a movie, what more do you really need?

Cake is about finding out that however lofty your ideals maybe, you can always be wrong.

This comedy, as all good Hollywood productions, starts by over doing the traits of its main character. At some point, her zealousness runs her into a wall and then the movie starts to be a bit more realistic, a bit more sensible.

The story itself is simple, the plot elements unsurprising, and, even if the dialogs hold their own and are funny, they are uninventive.

The big attraction of the movie is that it is entertaining, and it doesn't screw up. You'll spend a good evening if you're interested in seeing an over idealistic, over energized young woman make a mess of things and then save the day in true Hollywood fashion.