Where I Watched It?: Amazon

English Audio Description Provided By The Media Access Group

Narrated By: Emily hooks

Aside from the strange title, which reminded me of Riding In Cars With Boys, in some sort of weird series of doing something while having something with you, I was mostly here for the cast. yarisha heady, Bette Midler, and Ron Livingston. I’ve stopped watching a lot of this random crap the streaming services put out, as I end up watching enough bad films as it is. I want there to be a reason I’m choosing a film other than “it came out”, and I was a big fan of Grown-ish until they jettisoned most of the cast.

Then I saw this was adapted from a cookbook. OK. That’s a bit odd. But, the story, when you get into it, reveals itself as more than a simple cookbook. The first third of the film reveals two lifelong best friends with very different personalities. One has struggled to figure out what she wants to do with her life, as her parents expect her to be a lawyer, and the other is more fun and free wheeling, always pushing her more reserved friend out of her comfort zone. It’s the fun one that makes the other bring cake to the bar, and theres a pact soon created to do 50 cakes in a year, with the final cake being for a birthday.

That’s the least interesting part of the film. Sadly, it takes a brain tumor to turn this movie into what it really feels like it needs to be, and to start to give these actors range. It’s that experience, of possibly losing a best friend, of being young and dying early, or not achieving everything you wanted to achieve that all hits home. And since this screenplay is written by the author of the cookbook she understands this part of teh film really well. It shows.

Last year, Amazon had a similar movie (that I actually liked a little better than this) that gave John Cho and Mia Isaac the chance to go on a very similar journey in Don’t Let Me Go. Almost a year later to the date, Amazon drops this film. Methodical?

It’s not all sunshine and lollipops. I was really disengaged for the first third. Bette midler really does nothing and is totally wasted. And while this film will draw you in, there’s still a solid selection of films that did it better.

The audio description here is rather terrific. There’s one scene in the film where I’m not sure if the cameraman was having a stroke, but he must have held on a shot of the fridge forever, because the narrator was able to describe damn near every note and photograph posted on it. It was kind of amazing. Not just letting us know there were photos and notes, but actually having the time to read the notes, and describe the photos. Just that one bit floored me, because it felt like we must have been staring at a fridge for a solid minute for no particular reason.

The cakes also sound delicious, and Emily made me hungry by narrating them even better. Plus, there’s some text on screen before each one for her to read off the name of the cake. This film will absolutely make you hungry.

Considering that the screenplay is written by the person these events happened to, who is adapting a cookbook, it isn’t a bad first effort. However, it is pretty far from perfect, even if the friendship between friends is strong in the back half. For a film so reminiscent of Beaches, it certainly had no idea why Bette Midler was there, which is even more baffling. But, I think some people will connect to this, and it will be worth their time.

Final Grade: B-