Too Many Cookies: A Sweet Mess You Might Just Love

Alright, so if you're settling in for a cozy, feel-good baking movie, you might need to adjust your expectations for Too Many Cookies. This isn't your grandma's wholesome cookie flick. If you find yourself chuckling at mild absurdities and the slow unraveling of a character's sanity over something utterly trivial, then yeah, give this a watch. But if you’re hoping for heartwarming moments or a clear, satisfying arc, you'll probably just feel a little confused and maybe hungry in the wrong way. It's a specific kind of charming, this one.

Tyler Brooke plays Martha, our lead baker. Her performance, especially early on, is all these tiny, anxious twitches. You can just feel her quiet desperation to be good at something, anything. When she's staring at a tray of perfectly normal-looking cookies in the opening scene, there’s this long, long pause before she sighs. It’s not about the cookie, is it? It’s never just about the cookie.

The whole setup for the 'Annual Golden Spatula Bake-Off' feels like it's pulled right out of a small-town newspaper. It's delightfully understated. Then Duane Thompson shows up as Reginald, the *other* baker. He’s all smiles and perfectly coiffed hair. He has this one line, something about 'the artisanal crunch,' that just makes your skin crawl. You know right then he's the antagonist, even though he's just talking about cookies. He never quite stops being creepy.

There's a sequence where Martha tries to develop her 'signature cookie.' It's just her in her kitchen, dumping flour everywhere, muttering to herself. The camera just kind of stays on her hands, kneading dough, then slamming it down. For about three minutes. The silence gets a bit heavy. You can almost smell the burnt sugar and frustration. This is where you see the film commit to its premise, even if it makes you wonder if you’re watching a horror movie about baking.

The stakes, of course, are purely local. No one's saving the world. It’s just this stupid baking competition. But for Martha, it’s everything. There's a moment when she's trying to get this specific shade of golden brown on her chocolate chips, and she pulls out a literal color swatch. 🎨 It's that kind of intense. You see the film trying to tell you, without saying it, that this is more than just a contest for her. It’s her entire identity on the line.

Duane Thompson's Reginald, he’s less a character and more a caricature of smug perfection. His kitchen is spotless, his aprons pristine. He makes these *perfect* little cookies, and the way he places them on the cooling rack, it’s almost balletic. It's so over-the-top, it’s funny. He’s the guy you love to hate, even when he's just… being good at baking. Which is, you know, his whole deal.

The pacing of Too Many Cookies is… interesting. Sometimes it rushes through important plot points, like Martha accidentally setting fire to a small corner of her kitchen, and sometimes it lingers on a close-up of a bubbling dough for what feels like an eternity. It’s uneven, but maybe that’s part of its charm? Or maybe it just means they had a weird editing schedule. Who knows.

One scene that sticks with me: Martha is at the grocery store, buying what feels like all the butter. The cashier gives her this really pointed look. It’s only a few seconds, but it tells you so much about how far gone Martha is becoming. It’s these small, almost blink-and-you-miss-it moments that really hit. Nobody says anything, but you know what's going on. 😬

The climax, the actual bake-off, is a glorious mess. I won't spoil it, but let's just say the title of the movie is *very* literal. There’s flour everywhere, sugar flying, and Martha's eyes have this wild, unhinged look. It’s a lot. The sheer volume of cookies involved is genuinely startling. You just have to see it to believe it.

Richard Harding Davis, the writer, clearly had a specific vision for this. It’s not trying to be anything grand. It's just a little story about ambition and butter. I did find myself wondering about the logistics of cleaning up all those crumbs, though. That’s probably not the point, but still. The movie does a good job of showing, not telling, what happens when someone takes a simple joy and turns it into a stressful obsession. It’s a bit of a weird ride, but *Too Many Cookies* has a strange, compelling flavor all its own.