The Cake Eaters

Rating:

* * *

Verdict:

Fine ensemble acting compensates for slightly theatrical script.

Small, sweet and nicely judged, the directing debut of established actress Masterson traverses familiar territory: the return of a family member makes ripples in the life of a small town.

But if the set-up sounds like a cliche and some of the script is slightly overwritten, it's held aloft by some terrific performances - notably a luminous turn from

Twilight

star Stewart as 15-year-old Georgia, who is crippled by a progressive muscular disease.

She is the emotional anchor of a film set in a small town in upstate New York that is ostensibly about the three men of the Kimbrough family: Easy (Dern), the newly widowed local butcher; his elder son Guy (Bartok, who wrote the screenplay) who has returned from New York after failing to make it as a rock star; and Guy's younger brother Beagle (Stanford), who nursed their dying mother and hasn't stopped resenting the fact.

Meanwhile, across town young Georgia Kaminski is aching to live what remains of her short life free of the suffocating attentions of her anxious mother (Balsam) and is abetted in her attempts to spread her wings by her zanily permissive grandmother (Ashley).

There's a certain theatricality to the opening stanzas, but as the film finds its rhythm, the lives of these two families intersect in unexpected ways. The result is a charming indie ensemble drama of the kind the Americans can - but seldom do - make so well.

Peter Calder

Cast:

Kristen Stewart, Aaron Stanford, Jayce Bartok, Bruce Dern, Elizabeth Ashley, Talia Balsam

Director:

Mary Stuart Masterson

Running time:

85 mins

Rating:

M (offensive language, sexual references)