Cake

America's sweetheart turns sour in Cake, a tear-jerking star vehicle for Jennifer Aniston that earned her a Golden Globe nomination. It's a brave, awards-baiting performance and stands apart from her usual romantic-comedy heroine roles - albeit with an awkward posture - since her character Claire suffers with chronic back pain following a car accident (and is addicted to painkillers). Apart from that, Claire is defined by her greasy hair and an array of grey cardigans, Aniston proving she doesn't have to be cute and ingratiating to be engaging. But her deadpan retorts in therapy and at home, where her Mexican maid (Adrianna Barraza) helps care for her, are a thin veil for what is essentially a saccharine confection of clichés, full of bits that are hard to swallow. Anna Kendrick is short-changed as the suicide case who goads Claire from beyond the grave and Claire's obsession with the dead woman's family (including Sam Worthington as Mr Nice Guy) is just another strained twist of the plot.