The Cake Eaters (2007)

Very Cool!!!

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I thought it was well done all around. Writing - Screen play, acting, and the casting. It did not blow me away but it did keep me interested in what will happen next.I thought that the story and the characters were believable. Not sure if this is based on a true story or not. But it certainly could all happen.I would recommend this to my family and friends.I never did figure out why it was named the Cake Eaters? If you only watch moral movies - Everyone sleeps with unmarried partners.

Easy Kimbrough (Bruce Dern) is the butcher in the rural community who lives with his loser son Beagle (Aaron Stanford). His sickly wife recently died and they're selling her stuff at the swap meet. There they help Marg Kaminski (Elizabeth Ashley) and her granddaughter Georgia (Kristen Stewart). Georgia suffers from Friedreich's Ataxia, a terminal neurological genetic disease. Georgia's mother Violet (Talia Balsam) constantly takes Artistic pictures of Georgia and tries new age treatments. Easy's oldest son Guy (Jayce Bartok) returns home as a failed musician after 3 years in NYC. He's trying to reconnect with his ex Stephanie (Miriam Shor).It's a bunch of damaged likable people struggling to make something of their lives. I like Beagle and Georgia. I like that she's the more aggressive person and the toughest person in the movie. Aaron Stanford does a good job and Kristen Stewart is skinny enough to be a cripple. Although her disability does come and go at times. I don't find the older brother Guy quite as compelling. His story is somewhat unnecessary. I like Mary Stuart Masterson's theatrical directorial debut. It is sensitive and solid. It's a very commendable first effort.

This is the kind of movie I tend to like, in which not much happens but interesting characters interact with one another in quiet ways that draw me into their world. Unfortunately the formula does not work here. The problem is the screenplay.The basic story is fine; the characters are a decently varied assortment of potentially interesting folk; the actors are good enough (although Stewart is the only one who really shines, and even the two old pros, Dern and Ashley, are embarrassing only because of the awful screenplay); and the direction, photography, etc, are competent; but the dialog is awful. Really, really bad. I suppose it is trying to be deep and meaningful, but it is just painfully stilted and artificial: from beginning to end, not one word any character speaks sounds like a real human being talking.The extremely awkward title is a good example of what the dialog is like. The Cake Eaters had good potential but was torpedoed by very bad writing.

In a small town in the countryside, Georgia Kaminski (Kristen Stewart) is a fifteen year-old girl with Friedreich's ataxia, a genetic disease that causes progressive damage to the nervous system resulting in clumsy movements, speech problems heading to heart disease. While in a flea market selling goods with her grandmother Marg (Elizabeth Ashley), Georgia meets the shy twenty-years old Beagle Kimbrough (Aaron Stanford), who works in the cafeteria of her school and is the son of the local butcher Easy (Bruce Dern). Beagle spent the last years taking care of his ill mother while Easy and Marg have secretly been lovers for many years. Georgia feels that she will have few years of life and decides to lose her virginity with the sensitive Beagle. Meanwhile, Easy's older son Guy (Jayce Bartok) returns from New York for the funeral of his mother and seeks out the hairdresser Stephanie (Miriam Shor), who was his fiancée that he left behind when he moved to New York chasing the dream of becoming a successful musician. During the reunion, the lives of members of both families experience new discoveries and feelings.The debut of the sweet Mary Stewart Masterson in the direction of a feature is a beautiful and sensitive movie about families' relationship. The three romances are realistic and engaging and the characters are human and credible. The top-notch and impressive performance of Kristen Stewart in the role of a teenager with Friedreich's ataxia deserved a nomination to the Oscar. Kristen Stewart proves that she is not only an extremely gorgeous woman, but mainly a awesome actress. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Doces Encontros" ("Sweet Encounters")