The Cake Eaters
| The Cake Eaters | |
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Theatrical film poster
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| Directed by | Mary Stuart Masterson |
| Produced by | Allen Bain Elisa Pugliese |
| Written by | Jayce Bartok |
| Starring |
Kristen Stewart Aaron Stanford Jayce Bartok Bruce Dern Elizabeth Ashley |
| Music by | Duncan Sheik |
| Cinematography | Peter Masterson |
| Edited by | Joe Landauer Colleen Sharp |
| Distributed by | 7-57 Releasing |
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Release date
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Running time
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86 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Cake Eaters is a 2007 American independent drama film about two small town families who must confront old issues with the return of one family's son. The film was directed by Mary Stuart Masterson (in her feature film directorial debut) and stars Kristen Stewart, Aaron Stanford, Bruce Dern, and Jayce Bartok. Kristen Stewart is featured as Georgia, a young girl with Friedreich's ataxia, a rare disease for which there is no cure.
The Cake Eaters is a small-town, ensemble drama that explores the lives of two interconnected families coming to terms with love in the face of loss. Living in rural America, the Kimbrough family are a conflicted bunch: Easy, the patriarch and local butcher, is grieving over the recent loss of his wife, Ceci, while hiding a secret ongoing affair for years; Beagle, his youngest son who was left to care for his ailing mother, works in the local high school cafeteria by day but has a burning passion inside that manifests itself through painting street signs; and the eldest son, Guy, has been away from the family for years while pursuing his rock star dream in the big city until the day he learns of his mother's death and that he has missed the funeral.
Upon Guy's return home, relationships between the characters begin to unravel: Beagle's pent up emotions connect with Georgia Kaminski, a terminally ill teenage girl wanting to experience love before it is too late; Easy's long-time affair with Marg, Georgia's eccentric grandmother, is finally exposed to the Kimbrough children; and Guy discovers that in his absence his high school sweetheart, Stephanie, has moved on and started a family of her own. Consequently, The Kimbroughs and Kaminskis manage to establish new beginnings in facing their varied relationships.
In an interview at The Austin Film Festival in 2007, Jayce Bartok, the movie's screenwriter, was asked about the title's meaning. Bartok is quoted as saying, "The Cake Eaters is a term I grew up with in Pennsylvania. My mom used to use it to describe those who had it made, had their lives mapped out for them, were the most likely to succeed… 'The Cake Eaters.' I thought it was an interesting metaphor for this group of misfits who begin the story searching and longing for love, trying to overcome grief, and through the course of the story… find their 'cake.' They find some love, happiness, peace…." The term was widely popularized as a quote from the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks.
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