The Birthday Cake – Too Slow a Build Up
Director: Jimmy Giannopoulos
Writer: Jimmy Giannopoulos, Diomedes Raul Bermudez, Shiloh Fernandez (Screenplay)
Starring: Shiloh Fernandez, Val Kilmer, Ewan McGregor, William Fichtner, Lorraine Bracco, Jeremy Allen White, Emory Cohen, Vincent Pastore
Plot: On the 10th anniversary of his father’s death, Giovanni reluctantly accepts the task of bringing a cake to the home of his uncle, a mob boss, for a celebration. Just two hours into the night, Gio’s life is forever changed.
Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Birthday Cake starts when Gio (Fernandez) is looking to celebrate the anniversary of his father’s death in the mob filled family, where he is given the honour of delivery the birthday cake.
As Gio travels around the neighbourhood, he sees the people who are always watching over the family, as well as the people who are the closest family, this will lead him to a life changing moment because of his Uncle Angelo (Kilmer) and Uncle Ricardo (Fichtner).
Thoughts on The Birthday Cake
Thoughts – The Birthday Cake is a typical gangster movie about a younger member of the family being thrown into the mix of the business without his will, leading to him needing to make the difficult decision about his own future. This isn’t a very engaging movie in anyway, leaving the star studded cast with little to do, while feeling like a knock off of many different gangster films from throughout the years. We do get a massive reveal, only it does take too long to reach this point, leaving us wanting more than anything else to get this earlier because it would have made this a much more interesting film.
Signature Entertainment presents The Birthday Cake in Cinemas and on Premium Digital 16th July
Final Thoughts – The Birthday Cake is a gangster film with a killer final act, only it drags getting there.
