Suffering in Silence; Worthington, Kendrick, Messina & co. Slice into “Cake”

Jennifer Aniston will have quite the “support” group of actors for her next journey into indie film format. Moving away from familiar rom com territory, TheWrap reports that the A-lister and the previously announced Adriana Barraza and Mamie Gummer will be joined by Sam Worthington, Anna Kendrick, Chris Messina, the wife-hubby tandem of Felicity Huffman & William H. Macy, Britt Robertson, Lucy Walters, Camille Mana, Manuel Garcia Rulfo and finally, Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Daniel Barnz’s Cake, a 2013 Black List project, should be lensing fairly soon. Messina will play Aniston’s ex-husband who still cares about her deeply, while Huffman will play the facilitator of the support group. Kendrick will appear as a ghost who taunts Claire. Mana will play Claire’s nurse, who has no patience for her demands.

Gist: Based on Patrick Tobin’s script, Aniston will play an acerbic woman named Claire who becomes fascinated by the suicide of Nina (Kendrick), a woman in her chronic pain support group. As she uncovers the details of Nina’s suicide and develops a poignant relationship with Nina’s husband (Worthington), Claire also grapples with her own very raw personal tragedy.

Worth Nothing: Felicity Huffman previously worked with Barnz on his directorial debut, 2008’s Phoebe in Wonderland.

Do We Care?: It appears the bulk of the film’s cred falls onto Anna Kendrick’s shoulders – how her “ghost” character relates to Aniston’s lead is definitely sink or swim territory.