Aimee Teegarden and Krysta Rodriguez in Bakery in Brooklyn (2016).
Early on in the preposterous romantic comedy Bakery in Brooklyn we hear the line, "Too much sugar is bad for you." Holy cannoli, ain't that the truth. Directed and co-written by Spain's Gustavo Ron, the film is a layer cake of cutesy romance, fight-for-your-dreams earnestness and a syrupy score. A woolly, cockamamie story involves incompatible cousins – played by Aimee Teegarden and Krysta Rodríguez – battling with each other as they try to save a family boulangerie from going under. Ideas on urban gentrification are uninspired and the cliché ethnicity borders on racism: The earthy Russian is a drug dealer, the long-haired Latino is hot-blooded and the old black guy is a blind shoe-shiner of the mystic kind. Naturally, Brooklyn is the setting for the type of old-fashioned brand of fairy-tale film this stinker aspires to be, but each time the inspirational Brooklyn Bridge is shown the desire to jump off it is doubled.
Brad Wheeler