Indie Film “Scripture Cake” Has Sweetness to Spare
Posted by adam.s.ryan@vimooz.com on April 5, 2009 under DVD, DVD Review, drama | 
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A labor of love at least as sugary as its titular confection, the independent film Scripture Cake—from writer/director and academic Dr. Emily Edwards—is a well-meaning celebration of family and its discontents.
The personal meets the political in the story of a Deep South interracial family coping with a dark history of segregation. An upbeat gospel-tinged score forms the background to their generational anxiety, as the values of the old are tested, and the young try to figure out why any of this was ever a big deal.
The enforcement of a shameful miscegenation law a half-century ago is the original sin the family tries to overcome, leaving the grandparents testy, the parents eager to provoke, and the grandchildren wondering if there’s a baby worth keeping in all that murky bathwater.
Tensions come to a climax in a reunion weekend marked by the preparation of an old family recipe: the hand-written directions for scripture cake from a generation of old.
Scripture cake, in case you’re wondering, is a traditional Southern recipe with ingredients culled from Bible verses. That old-time religious cooking turns out to be a balm for the wounds of the divided clan, some of whom still harbor a scandalous bigotry. (There’s a line about African AIDS victims that sounds like something Pat Robertson’s angry grandmother would say.)
But there’s love too, and sweetness, and this tender-hearted film has plenty of both to go around.