Review Roundup: Jennifer Aniston, Anna Kendrick Star in New Drama CAKE

Jennifer Aniston stars in the new drama CAKE, which hits theaters nationwide today. Aniston has already earned nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award and Golden Globe Award for her performance in the film. INTO THE WOODS' Anna Kendrick also stars.

The story follows a woman suffering from chronic pain (Aniston) who begins to have visions of a woman from her support group who committed suicide. Desperete for answers behind the woman's tragic death, she sets out to find the woman's now widowed husband.

CAKE stars Jennifer Aniston, Sam Worthington, Adriana Barraza, Anna Kendrick, Felicity Huffman, and William H. Macy.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The movie hits so many familiar beats that it's impossible not to see what's next. It does what you expect at almost every turn, even with some hallucinations that, with one piercing exception, seem calculated to keep real hurt at bay.

Justin Chang, Variety: Approaching such heavy issues as suicide, grief, separation and pill addiction with a disarming sense of humor, director Daniel Barnz and screenwriter Patrick Tobin attempt to pull off an emotional bait-and-switch by suddenly revealing a more sympathetic side to their anti-heroine, falling back on one of the hoariest and most overused of movie cliches in the process.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Yes, she's deglammed (that's not Rachel hair). Yes, she's damn near on her own up there. But she pulls it off triumphantly and cuts straight to the heart. Way to go, Aniston.

Claudia Puig, USA Today: While it's good to see Aniston take a darker, deeper role - a more hollow-eyed version of the unhappy woman she played in 2002's The Good Girl - the story surrounding her in CAKE lacks the necessary ingredients.

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Claire's life is a pain in the neck, back, legs, head and heart. So what? What we, in the audience, are getting out of this movie is no more than what Claire's circle gets out of her, which is: not much.

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Alas, "Cake" can't rise simply from Aniston's performance. Had the script been sharper and the direction tighter, she might just have made the Oscar list. Instead, with her almost-ran status now part of the story, "Cake" seems second-tier.

Melissa Maerz, Entertainment Weekly: Watching these scenes, you might forget that Aniston's pillow-creased face is supposed to be the draw here. That wasn't such a big risk for Aniston. Trusting that there's an audience out there for any film, even a good one, about chronic pain? Now, that's brave.

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: It's a letdown that the film itself, written by Patrick Tobin and directed by Daniel Barnz, doesn't take half the chances its leading lady does and is content to paddle around the shallows rather than plunge into the deep end.

Catherine Shoard, The Guardian: Here is a movie that EXISTS solely as a showcase for hitherto hidden acting chops; an anti-vanity catwalk down which she can limp, drained and hideous. But it won't win awards, because it's - admirably - light on histrionics; just a humdrum yet hokey study of the effects of chronic pain.

Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter: ...the film... is less emotionally potent than it wants to be, and feels as if it might have been overmedicated by script doctoring to make it more palatable to Aniston's fan base.

Photo Credit: Official Site

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