Cake (Lions Gate Films, 2005)***
Heather Graham is positively radiant in Cake as the fish out of water editor of a traditional bridal magazine. It is unclear whether ABC's quick axe on Graham's prime time sitcom ( Emily's Reasons Why Not ) in early 2006 had anything to do with the lack of U.S. theatrical release, but Cake is so well written, cast and acted that it deserved better than to be released straight to dvd; it saw theatrical release only in Canada and Isreal. Cake seems formulaic at first (equal parts Just Shoot Me and Down With Love ), but the writing is smart and funny and continually surpasses all expectations. Graham plays Pippa McGee, a freelance and free sprited travel writer whose father is a magazine publisher who after suffering a heart attack, consents to allow his daughter to help out by editing one of his magazines, Wedding Bells Monthly. Graham immediately attempts to shake up the previously staid publication and the results are genuinely funny. To illustrate just how utterly char