I once met Karen Black at a Chiller Theater convention in the early 2000's. She signed an autograph for me and was quite moved that I picked a "Family Plot" picture for her to sign ("Family Plot" was of course Hitchcock's last film). When she looked at me, her hypnotic, witchy eyes left me feeling as if I was put in a trance. It was amazing to see her look at me this way. That is why she is so perfectly and believably romantic, goofy and kooky all at the same time in "Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?" which is among Karen Black's finest performances ever. When a man looks at her, he can't help but be transfixed and how could he not be?
Zee (Karen Black) is unable to deal with her husband leaving her. At first, I thought he was a boyfriend who had to leave for work but then we see him packing his clothes while she puts them back in the drawers and vice versa! Meanwhile, we hear the jackhammerin' outside and director Henry Jaglom has an annoying habit of cutting from the jackhammering to Zee pleading with her husband to stay, back and forth and back and forth. Oh, God, why? I still don't understand the juxtaposition nor do I understand how Jaglom frequently has his team of editors just barely cut by slivers at the end of many scenes so you get an occasionally abrupt transition that feels out of step. It works in some films but here, there are many scenes that have a simple beauty, like the guy playing with a pigeon that flies to his hand on command in long takes without abrupt cuts. The former is just an editing pattern that you can ignore due to the cast and our engaging involvement with Zee.
The movie is primarily about Zee though not always from her point-of-view. In one stunningly moving scene, Zee starts to sob trying to order a meal at a local cafe and a near-balding social worker, Eli (Michael Emil, a true original in this type of movie), tries to comfort her. He succeeds in making her laugh and the rest of this atypical romantic comedy has them frolicking in the city, frolicking in bed while he measures his heartbeat, and then they start to really talk to each other. Zee panics and thinks people from the cafe where she met Eli are following her, yet Emil doesn't judge and tries to calm her down. Zee sometimes sings at an underpopulated bar, and sometimes she watches Orson Welles on TV doing magic tricks (I wouldn't doubt some of this footage is from Jaglom's "A Safe Place").
Zee sees beauty in the everyday, even in the concrete jungle of New York City. Eli loves her for that reason and these scenes really got to me on an emotional level. Karen Black encapsulates Zee's inner and outer beauty flawlessly so that when she sings, we are touched by this emotional wreck of an angel. "Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?" is awkwardly shaped at times with the introduction of needless characters at the cafe (including a very young, almost unrecognizable Larry David and that annoying pigeon expert) and though some of these interactions are cute, they do not merit half the attention we want from Zee and Eli. Zee finds some measure of hope, of belonging to someone like Eli whom you might least expect to discover such a capable romantic partner. We see it in her eyes and they do not lie. Those hypnotic, witchy eyes.
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