Jennifer Aniston showed a rare and delightfully dark streak in the 2011 comedy Horrible Bosses, in which she frolicked as a sexually predatory dentist.
With this weekend’s release of Horrible Bosses 2, Aniston is out and about raising awareness for a role in which she goes even darker — and much deeper. In the TIFF-screened Cake, for which she has received glowing reviews, Aniston plays a pill addict forced to decide whether she wants to get better — or continue on the dangerous path ahead of her.
Here’s the press synopsis for the film:
Claire Simmons (Jennifer Aniston) is in pain. Her physical pain is evident in the scars that line her body and the way she carries herself, wincing with each tentative step. She’s no good at hiding her emotional pain, either. Blunt to the point of searing insult, Claire’s anger seethes out of her with nearly every interaction. She has driven away her husband, her friends — even her chronic-pain support group has kicked her out.
The only one left in Claire’s otherwise solitary existence is her housekeeper-cum-caretaker, Silvana (Academy Award nominee Adriana Barraza), who barely tolerates her boss’ need for liquor and prescription pills. But the suicide of Nina (Academy Award nominee Anna Kendrick), one of Claire’s fellow chronic-pain group members, prompts another fixation. In pursuing questions about the death of a woman she barely knew, Claire explores the boundaries between life and death, abandonment and heartbreak, danger and salvation. As she inserts herself into the lives of Nina’s husband (Sam Worthington) and the son Nina left behind, Claire just might find salvation.
Cake will open in New York on January 23, 2015.
