Welcome to A-Z Movie Reviews. Every Sunday, for the next several months, I will be posting a review of a film in my home movie collection. How it works is, I will be reviewing movies in alphabetical order until I get to the letter Z (Yes, I do have a film that ends in Z). Now I realize there are many ways to alphabetize a film collection but this is mine so don’t judge me. This is simply for fun.
Kristen Stewart is one of my favorite actresses. After I saw her in Twilight as Bella Swan, I immediately became a fan and decided to take a look at other projects she had done. I always enjoy checking out the other work actors and actresses have done other than what they are most known for. If you only focus on the one thing, you can miss out on so much. Kristen’s performance in The Cake Eaters is the perfect example.
What it’s about:
Two families are brought together by the return of one family’s son — a reunion that conjures up old ghosts and issues that must be addressed.
In The Cake Eaters, Kristen plays Georgia Kaminski a teenage girl born with Friedreich’s ataxia a rare genetic disorder that has no cure. Georgia is a strong young girl who understands her disorder very well and doesn’t let it stop her.
Georgia’s mom Ceci (Melissa Leo), wants to share her daughter with the world and does this by taking still life portraits of her in the hopes of winning a Guggenheim grant for her work. Although, Georgia supports her mom in this, she just wants to live her life without constant reminders of her condition. When she meets Dwight, AKA “Beagle” (Aaron Stanford), it changes her life entirely.
Because Georgia knows she doesn’t have a lot of time left in her life, she chooses to seize every moment she has and that includes losing her virginity. For Georgia, losing her virginity is not that big of a deal and she just wants to experience it, and love before it’s too late. That’s what Beagle provides for her.
Beagle is dealing with his own familial issues as well. As he is grieving the recent loss of his mother whom he took care of, he does his best to take care of and support his father as well. When his brother who has been gone living the life of a rock star for three years, shows up unexpectedly, it opens up old wounds. He finds peace in spending time with Georgia because she’s a bright spot in his life and she sparks joy in him that he hasn’t felt in a long time.
Kristen delivers such an emotional and vulnerable performance in The Cake Eaters. Playing a character with any type of disorder has to be extremely challenging but Kristen does it in such an honest and real way. I know it had to be difficult physically to pull off every aspect of her character from the voice, to the walk, i’m sure it was very demanding on her body.
I wouldn’t necessarily refer to The Cake Eaters as a romantic love story because it’s more about people looking for acceptance. Love is the backbone of that acceptance but, that’s not the major theme. Every person in this movie is searching for something and I think it’s really up to the interpretation of the viewer to figure out what that is.
Other Thoughts
- Kristen Stewart is amazing in this film. Seriously, I know playing a person with Friedreich’s ataxia, was so difficult and I can only imagine how tired her body felt after shooting every day.
- Although, I really liked Beagle, it was still a little weird knowing that he was a grown man working in Georgia’s school cafeteria.
- If you’re a guy and have been gone for three years, you can’t expect the girl you left, to not have moved on and started a family of her own.
- I don’t care how old you are, catching your parent hooking up with someone is still awkward AF.
- Kristen’s short hair wig drove me nuts. I hated it.
