THE CAKE EATERS
US, 2007, 86 minutes, Colour.
Elizabeth Ashley, Jayce Bartok, Bruce Dern, Miram Shor, Aaron Stanford, Kristen Stewart, Talia Balsam.
Directed by Mary Stuart Masterson.
The Cake Eaters was written by the leading actor, Jayce Bartok. It was directed by actress Mary Stuart Masterson.
The film has a strong cast, veterans Elizabeth Ashley and Bruce Dern, young actors Aaron Stanford and Kristen Stewart at the time of the making of the first Twilight film.
1. A small film, independent? A piece of Americana? American families?
2. The portrait of the town, homes and shops, the countryside? Realistic? The musical score?
3. The writer, his starring role? Understanding of human nature?
4. Audiences identifying with the characters, the situations, the families and their lives, death? Careers? Failure, lack of communication, relationships?
5. Easy as the patriarch of the family, his age, his marriage, the secrecy of the affair, his wife’s illness, death, the arrangement of the funeral, inviting Guy to come, his not coming? Watching the home movies? Guy’s return and its effect? Beagle and his devotion to his mother, his father’s praising him? The tension between the brothers, the breakfast? Easy touching his sons and reassuring them? The visit to the bar? Guy, wandering off, finding Stephanie, the story of their engagement, his disappearance? Her reaction? Not allowing him in? Guy later going to the window, seeing her with the child? Guy and his visit to the cemetery, his mother’s grave? Ultimately with his family? The final scenes of the home movie?
6. Marg, her lifestyle, a strong woman, her devotion to Georgia, her criticisms of Violet? Violet’s pictures of her daughter? Georgia and her illness, the parenting, Marg and the kiss? Her relationship with Easy? Beagle seeing her, his negative reaction? Easy and his proposal to Marg, Georgia’s disappearance, her being with Beagle, Marg considering Beagle below Georgia’s status? Violet and her phone calls? Easy and his praise of his son, their going to search for Beagle and Georgia, finding them, leaving them be? Her reassuring Violet?
7. Beagle, his age, his life, devotion to his mother, her dying? His easy relationship with his father? Tensions with Guy, especially the return? His job at the school, his liking for Georgia, meeting her, the awkwardness, the attraction, Georgia and her straightforwardness, the invitation? Helping her prepare for the tests? The kiss? The meeting, Georgia and her talking about her virginity, her prospects because of her illness? Beagle and his hesitation, his return, the effect, their love?
8. Violet, Lloyd, their relationship, Violet and her pictures, the exhibition? Her reason – concern about her daughter, the illness? Lloyd and his common sense?
9. The two families, Easy and his facing life without his wife? Marg and the possibility of a marriage? The younger generations? Interactions, resolutions, the future?
