Cake Movie Review: From the Perspective of Chronic Pain

I was lucky enough to watch a pre-screening of the movie Cake, featuring Jennifer Aniston. The trailer was intriguing, but watching the show honestly brought out some emotions I had not felt in awhile.

To start with, Jennifer really did her homework. From the various hidden stashes of medicine, to the way that every single movement hurts. Lying down when riding in the car. It brought it all back with a fresh ache. I haven’t felt pain quite that raw for some time. I have learned how to maintain, and in watching it on the screen, it really clarifies the truth of facing dependency. Yes, there is a physical addition to the medication, but like using a crutch for too long, we forget how to walk without it. We try to push through, to just ride it out, and turn to the medication to eliminate the pain. We tell ourselves we cannot live with such vicious agony coursing through us, with our minds screaming for release.

I tell myself every day how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to attend the Pain Rehabilitation Clinic (PRC) at the Mayo Clinic… getting off of those medications saved my life. I would have continued to live, but it wasn’t the quality of life I would wish on anyone.

The one main issue I have with this movie is the the story behind it. Most specifically, the fact that there IS a dramatic story behind it. Don’t get me wrong, it is fantastic that there is a movie that really addresses chronic pain, and knowing how public acceptance of this condition has only really come about in the past couple of years, it is fantastic that all of the stars in this film agreed to take part in something clearly not slated to be a blockbuster.

That said, Claire (Jennifer Aniston), has a backstory where she was in a terrible accident caused by someone else that took the life of her toddler son and left her mangled. Multiple times throughout the film you can see the scarring, either on her face, or terrible scars on her torso and legs. Anyone who looks at her can see that something happened to her, and it’s as if the scars justify the pain she experiences. There in lies the problem. While many of us have chronic pain that is caused by an accident (mine included) there are often no physical representations of that pain aside from our behavior, movements, etc. No scars, no braces, wheelchairs, prosthetic. We look just fine… yet we feel like the screaming pain in our bodies will literally tear us apart. This is a lot of people you may not even realize are suffering… the person crossing the street too slowly in front of your car, the girl in the drive-through that gives you a pained expression you may take for being “bitchy”, or the co-worker at the desk across from you.

To even further my point, there are so many people who didn’t even have an accident that caused the pain they experience. A good percentage of the people I attended the PRC had a wide variety of ailments, from excruciating migraines, stomach/intestinal pain, or passing multiple kidney stones each day. These people also looked just fine on the surface, and don’t have the convenient excuse of an accident.

Ultimately, I agree with the director’s choice of the backstory, as it will help convey the impact to those who do not have chronic pain. What I hope is that this story shows the true impact of pain on one’s life, family, acquaintances, and sanity. To get those who have not witnessed or experienced this kind of pain to understand the full ramifications of this condition. I hope people can have more compassion for those struggling with an illness that so many do not understand or even fully accept. And I hope that people will realize that it doesn’t matter what the back story is on how someone came to walk this path in life, but that the path they walk is just as real for someone that slowly developed debilitating pain without a cause as it is for someone who has survived a horrific accident.