An overly sweet, soggy cream puff
This would-be comedy begins with a food fight and gets only messier from there. “Bakery in Brooklyn” centers on cousins Vivien (Aimee Teegarden) and Chloe (Krysta Rodriguez), who inherit their aunt’s boulangerie — and her debt. Instead of working together to save the business, the two suddenly ex-best friends make it into a battleground.
Director Gustavo Ron and co-writer Francisco Zegers fill the movie to bursting with plot, turning what might have been a delightfully airy cream puff of a film into a soggy disaster. There are Vivien and Chloe’s respective romances, a clumsy guy (Griffin Newman) and his stalker-ish pursuit of Chloe’s coworker (Blanca Suárez), a drug subplot, an unrelated murder thread and a blind shoeshine man (Anthony Chisholm) who knows someone’s secrets just from what they wear on their feet.
It’s the cinematic equivalent of a novice baker throwing lemon curd, salted caramel, Nutella and crème anglaise into a bowl: sticky, overly sweet, without any real substance or balance.
“Bakery in Brooklyn” wants to be a classic romantic comedy, featuring charming animated credits, glowing cinematography and a score that would feel at home in a ’90s Meg Ryan movie. But there’s little love and less laughter here, largely because the characters never feel like real people who make believable choices. If the film had spent more time with them, audiences might have finished the movie feeling satisfied. “Bakery in Brooklyn.” Not rated. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. Playing: Laemmle Monica Film Center, Santa Monica.