The Cake Eaters - Le vie dell'amore

"The Cake Eaters" is so subtle a story and pleasing a film you won't notice how great it is until it is over. Much credit is due to Jayce Bartok, the screenwriter, as well as, Mary Stuart Masterson, the director, to fulfill the hearts of its characters while filling the souls of the audience. "Eaters" sweet subtleties meet heavy hearts touching on such powerful subjects as love, death, secrecy, adultery, disability, virginity, abandonment, and rebellion. With each character involved in one or more relationships: father/son, mother/daughter, grandmother/granddaughter, brothers; love: new, old, rekindled, exes; they are pulled apart at the seams, some almost to a breaking point, only to be shown how close they are.

At the heart of the story, in between all the eaters of cake, is Georgia, a young woman "living" with a rare genetic disorder that affects her mobility but not her spirit. Georgia is played wonderfully and with grace by Kristen Stewart ("Into the Wild"). Her performance is at the center of this story and is worthy of any if not all accolades (Oscar?). You find yourself so enmeshed in her ability to convince, that she makes "The Cake Eaters" truly magnificent.

As up-state New York sets the tone for the story it throws you back in time, maybe the 70's, while staying in the present. The film opens with footage of old home movies and settles nicely in a gray, rainy, folk art town, where everyone knows your name. And it sure seems nice to have been a part of it.

Mary Stewart Masterson's film The Cake Eaters is a very well done piece of cinema. A slice of rural life in a sleepy town, we are privy to a period of turmoil and discovery for two families living there. The Kimbrough's have recently lost their matriarch and a second family is dealing with the hardships of raising a child with Friedriech's Ataxia. Both groups are thrust together with some chance meetings, helping each other get through the tough times and remember the good in living life. There is a lot of heart on display and subtlety in its portrayal. We see just enough of every story thread to understand the emotions going on inside the heads of all the characters—emotions that are very complicated and co-existing with their exact opposites: can love ever really exist separate from hate? The main catalyst for much of what occurs stems from the return of Guy Kimbrough, back from a three-year, self-imposed exile of rock n' roll life in NYC. It is an interesting welcome; one mixed with happiness at seeing him and disappointment in the fact that he abandoned them all when they needed him the most. Played by the screenwriter, Jayce Bartok, it is a role that bares similarities to the only other film I have seen him in, Suburbia. There he was a returning rockstar seeing how different he had become when re-connecting with old friends, here he is that same guy, only now with the realization that his dream is over. This is a one-way ticket back home to start over and hope to find what it was he lost in those years away. Needing to make amends with the father and brother he left, the girl he walked out on, and the mother he missed saying goodbye to, Bartok does well showing the sadness and regret along with the hope of rebirth.

His introduction back into the life of his brother has a very real effect on the younger Beagle. Played wonderfully by Aaron Stanford, (in a huge departure from his turn as Pyro in the X-Men films), he is reminded of how he had to put his life on hold to care for his parents, one dying and one unable to stay and watch. After meeting the granddaughter of his father's old friend/flame, he finds that he must start to live for himself. Although she is younger and afflicted with a debilitating muscular disease, the two find a bond and common ground with each other. They see someone like themselves, wanting to find a relationship and person to be with. The climax of their relationship is very strong and well played, allowing the audience to discover whether their connection was strictly of convenience or much more. Kristen Stewart is fantastic as the girl Georgia. The way she must control her body in order for the disease to be real is effective, but also her smile at the hand God dealt her is perfect. This young woman knows her fate and tries to overcome any feelings of sadness by just living.

The beauty of The Cake Eaters is that it unfolds very unassumingly, taking its story and its progression as naturally as possible. There are no twists and turns or bombastic moments to hit the audience over the head with. Instead we are allowed a glimpse into the world of this town, where flea markets, butcher shops, and outskirt motels are commonplace and well used. Each moment is completely authentic, from the acting to the relationships uncovered as the film goes on. Even some little moments shine above the rest like when Easy Kimbrough, (the always great Bruce Dern), is telling his girlfriend that he can't continue their relationship if it remains a secret. He is so heartfelt and she as well trying to keep him for herself in the way she had grown accustomed, but once the phone rings and she finds that her granddaughter has gone off with his son, she turns on him and screams that Beagle isn't good enough for Georgia. Emotion is a powerful thing and the blunt truth of that scene just rings completely true.

With subtle directing and the fearless use of quiet moments to let the actors breathe and do their thing, Masterson has crafted a gem of a film. I kept thinking of another film with similar tonal qualities and settings in Tully while watching. This is strange because I don't remember much about that film except for really enjoying it, yet somehow I just felt they had a kinship with each other. Definitely an independent feature, I hope it will be able to eventually break the festival circuit and get a proper release either theatrically or on DVD. It is definitely one worth watching for those interested in small character studies and really effective drama.

"The cake eaters" is above all a picture with characters full of humanity, and the merit has to be given to the screenwriter, who offered intense and heartful dialogues, as well as to the director, who was able to guide a talented cast, as to convey the depth of their dramatic roles, without ever making them sound pathetic or unnecessarily melodramatic. There's a strong dignity in each of the characters, each one having to come to terms with old unsolved issues and relationships. The theme of love, at every age, at every stage, in every form is unraveled with a strong consciousness of all the single and unique problems, difficulties, but also positive involvement, that each single story may carry. I loved the touching story between Georgia and "Beagle", as it shows such delicacy, although facing complicated issues, such as disability and virginity. But in general, all the themes of the movie, from love to loss, to death, betrayal, seem to be treated with such tact,with such a sympathetic attitude towards the frailty of human beings, that also the overall sense of drama is softened, and a final sense of peace and relief is to be appreciated. A drama capable of making you feel good, a rare cinema experience.

I have been waiting for this movie from a very long time. Wait is a worthwhile, and i thoroughly enjoyed this one. Mary Stuart Masterson has captured complete concentration from the audience. You can watch this movie if your feeling low or even good.

This movie is about love and relationship. If you are physically unfit, you are not going to loose out of love and its wonderfully portrayed by Kristen Stewart. Overall your heart will float in a sea of joy.

Kristen Stewart is amazing, she takes a through a journey of kind bigheartedness and love. She definitely has a bright future and a long career. The storyline is perfect which contains emotions and humor.

Aaron Stanford is equally good in his own way. A piece of work through which you will fell good for at least a day. Cheers!!!!

In a backwater town in upstate New York, Georgia Kaminski (Kristin Stewart), a teenage girl with a terminal nervous disorder, finds herself torn between the frivolity of her grandmother (Elizabeth Ashley) and overly protective mother who, in the hopes of bringing awareness and humanity to her daughter's disease, takes controversial photos of Georgia in the nude. Several miles away, aspiring musician Guy Kimbrough (Jayce Bartok) returns to the house of estranged father Easy (Bruce Dern) and younger brother Beagle (Aaron Stanford), trying to hide the secret of his failure to make it big. Easy is the town butcher, recently widowed, with secrets of his own, while Beagle, the kid who never left home, has surrendered his life to the care of his father and late mother, and struggles to find an identity of his own. Kaminskis and Kimbroughs conjoin dramatically when Georgia, hoping to find love in her life, and to find it before it's too late, courts the affection of Beagle, whom she meets at an outdoor flea market. The innocent but contentious relationship causes a series of reckonings, as both families are forced to contend with the heaps of emotional baggage that have piled up in their lives.

Masterson keeps it real with this one. The drama is understated, the tension is subtle, and the characters are both distinct and believable. Hats off to Kristin Stewart, who manages to be a dozen things at once – tragic but not pitiful, strong, endearing, funny, unconventionally sexy, and none of the clichés we've grown to associate with any of Hollywood's notorious mental illnesses. Remaining hats to Bruce Dern, a long-time favorite of mine, who keeps a lid on things and never fails to command our respect, even as his character slides deeper into dubious behavior.

In many ways, the film's strengths almost become its undoing. The sustained, understated quality of the storytelling prevents the movie from having any kind of real climax, and the immaculate tension set up in the first hour of the movie never quite pays off in a way I would like. That said, it's still a beautiful film, a capstone of movie-making maturity, and deserves the widest audience possible.