Tuesday, June 12, 2007

In Her Shoes...big shoes

In Her Shoes - Curtis Hanson - 2005 - 8/10



Summary:

Rose Feller (Toni Collette) is enjoying finally landing the man of her dreams when she gets a call to pick up her drunk sister Maggie (Cameron Diaz). This opening scene is spun as the story of Rose's life - constantly bailing out her out of control sister. While Rose is a well established Lawyer at an accomplished Philadelphia law firm while Maggie is jobless - coasting through life by having men pay for her lifestyle. Rose tries to balance an office romance with a partner while also trying to get Maggie a job so she will get out of her apartment. When both of those dreams/intentions are snapped in one action, Rose is crushed and her life as well as Maggie's spins out of control. A little dog helps Rose get back on her feet and taking a chance brings her more happiness than she could have ever dreamed. Maggie, a self depreciating woman who thinks little to nothing of herself receives some confidence when she pursues the sender of an old letter.

Critique:

Just for the reccord, I tried to keep the summary down to a minimum in terms of what I reveal, because some interesting stuff happens, especially for a chick flick, the ideas are pretty original. Another Diaz movie, The Holiday should take note of how well this movie seemlessly moves between two different storylines while tracing the growth of two powerful women. The movies are similar, but In Her Shoes is a few shoe sizes better. While I haven't seen a lot of her movies, this is probably the best performance I've seen from Shirley MacLaine turn in. Furthermore, this movie broke my long held belief that Diaz can't act - because she is great her. She finally stops paying the ditzy girl, or the perfect girl, or stuck up girl and plays, the ditzy-stuck up-flawed-tormented-naive girl who is the perfect counterpart to Collete's Rose. The movie does have some fast turn arounds from some characters at the end as well as the "mildly" unrealistic premise that a high profile lawyer would become a dog-walker. I would also like to thank the writers/director for not having Diaz do anything with that guys son the doctor - that would have been totally corny.

Verdict:

If you need to watch a chick flick, this flick is pretty good.

If you liked this movie, watch...
...The Holiday
...The Devil Wears Prada
...Love Actually

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