Cake

From all the accolades Jennifer Aniston has been getting for playing a scarred, suicidal, pain-ridden accident victim in Cake, youd think shed never acted before. Thats what a decade of sitcom fame on Friends and nonstop tabloid scrutiny can do to a girl. Yet clear evidence of Anistons dramatic chops can be found in The Good Girl, The Object of My Affection,Friends With Money and Life of Crime.

So what is it about Cake thats finally made critics think Aniston can do more than smile pretty and make us laugh? Its not the film itself, since director Daniel Barnz lets Patrick Tobins script go soft around the edges. Its Aniston, a no-bull force of nature, who toughens things up. She doesnt skim the surface of Claire Simmons, an L.A. divorcee hooked on painkillers; she inhabits her with restraint, bruised emotion and scathing wit. Instead of playing Claires symptoms scars on her face, chest and back she finds whats raw and festering underneath.

We first meet Claire at a group therapy session whose leader (Felicity Huffman, doing insufferably smug to a turn) brings out the worst in Claire. Asked to express feelings for a fellow member, Nina (Anna Kendrick), a young mother who took a suicide leap off a freeway overpass, Claire salutes her for having the balls.

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At home, Claire relies on Silvana (a sublime Adriana Barraza), the Mexican housekeeper who puts up with Claires shit even when, despite acute physical pain, she screws the gardener and insists, since she cant sit up, that Silvana drive her across the border for illegal drugs, a scene thats funny and unexpectedly touching.

The plot doesnt thicken as much as congeal when the drug-hazed Claire has conversations with the ghost of Nina and starts visiting the dead girls hunky husband, Ray (Avatars Sam Worthington), and their young son.

If you cant see where this is going, youve probably never seen a movie before. But the script plods on, complete with an ending that futilely tries to tidy up the scenario strands. Miraculously, Aniston maintains our rooting interest. Yes, shes deglammed (thats not Rachel hair). Yes, shes damn near on her own up there. But she pulls it off triumphantly and cuts straight to the heart. Way to go, Aniston.