“Sitting in Bars with Cake”, which is currently available on Amazon Prime, leaves a rather uneven taste on me. While it attempts a sincere mix of comedy and drama, its titular subject is often curiously put aside as the movie comes to pay more attention to a serious situation surrounding its two main characters, and you may be disappointed if you expect to see lots of cake and some romance to come along with them.

The movie, which is loosely based on the nonfiction book “Sitting in Bars with Cake: Lessons and Recipes from One Year of Trying to Bake My Way to a Boyfriend” by Audrey Schulman (She also did the adaptation, by the way), mainly revolves around the friendship between two young women living in LA: Jane (Yara Shahidi) and Corine (Odessa A’zion). While Corine works as an assistant under the owner of one prominent Hollywood agency company, Jane has worked in its mailroom for a while, and she has also been preparing to go to any nice law school in California as expected by her successful lawyer parents.

However, Jane usually finds herself being more interested in making cakes during her spare time, and she certainly makes a nice cake for Corine’s birthday party. After her cake happens to draw the attention of several guys at a bar where Corine’s birthday party is being held, Corine suggests a little nice idea for Jane. Considering that Jane has not had much luck in attracting any guy at bars, her cakes may help increasing her opportunity in romance, and Jane reluctantly agrees to her friend’s suggestion even though she is not so sure about this rather unconventional strategy.

First, she and Corine make a little plan on a number of selected bars in the city, and that is followed by a series of amusing moments as Jane is surprised to find their plan works better than expected. While there are some rude men who send the photographs of their genitals after their encounter with Jane via her cakes, Jane is delighted to see how her cakes attract a lot more men to her than before, and she and Corine also have lots of fun along with their several close friends as dropping by one different bar after another. Some of these places are quite colorful to say the least, and there is a little naughty moment involved with a bar decorated with some sexual elements.

Meanwhile, Corine is excited when she is promoted to become a new junior agent, but, alas, there comes the bad news on one day. It turns out that she has a certain kind of brain tumor which cannot be surgically removed, and this medical problem seriously affects her life as well as her career. While she immediately gets a treatment recommended by her doctor, there is not much hope in her case, and things only get worse as she is subsequently notified that her illness advances to the terminal stage.

As her best female friend who has known her for a long time since their childhood years in Phoenix, Arizona, Jane naturally stands by Corine as much as possible, and so do Corine’s parents, who immediately fly from Phoenix after hearing about their dear daughter’s illness. In contrast to Corine’s vivacious personality, Corine’s parents are dry and plain to our little amusement, and their considerable personality difference often functions as a little source of humor along the story.

Not so surprisingly, Shulman’s screenplay leans more to the clichés of many similar films involved with female bond and terminal illness, and that is where the movie becomes less engaging than before. While Corine’s terminal illness is surely a crucial part which prompts Jane to reflect more on what she really wants to do for her life, this part also inevitably eclipses the titular subject of the movie, and those lovely cakes of Jane consequently become less prominent in the end. In case of the subplot involved with a male intern who has attracted Jane’s attention, that feels redundant at best and artificial at worst, and the same thing can be said about a supporting character played by Bette Midler, though her appearance here in the film may take you back to “Beaches” (1988), a well-known melodrama film about two best female friends.

I still wish the movie delved more into how Jane makes her cakes, but I also appreciate the considerable chemistry between its two good lead actresses, who may move onto better things to come in the future. Yara Shahidi brings unadorned natural charm to her character, and she and her co-star Odessa A’zion are effortless in several key scenes between their characters. Even though Jane and Corine do not talk that much about their long past, we can instantly sense that as observing the casual intimacy between them, and that is the main reason why several sappy melodramatic moments later in the story work despite their conventional aspects. In case of several supporting characters surrounding them, Ron Livingston and Maia Mitchell have their own little moments at time, and Aaron Domínguez and Rish Shah acquit themselves well despite their thankless roles.

Overall, “Sitting in Bars with Cake”, directed by Trish Sie, is often entertaining mainly thanks to the likable performances from Shahidi and A’zion, but you may be frequently dissatisfied with its uneven storytelling like I was during my viewing. Yes, it could be more interesting in my humble opinion, but I will not stop you from watching this passable product if you just want to kill your spare time.