In Her Shoes

Review by Adam Weeks

God, I love Curtis Hanson’s films. Look at what the guy has given us so far – The River Wild (much better than most people remember), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, L.A. Confidential (the best Russell Crowe performance yet), Wonder Boys and the movie that actually made me like Eminem, 8 Mile.

Each one is a solid film in its own right, and each one is worlds apart from the film that preceded it. That being said, Curtis Hanson doing a bona-fide chick-flick? Silly rabbit, I never should have doubted him.

In Her Shoes is a prime example of how you fool an audience into thinking that they are watching anything but a girly movie. It’s done with humour, it’s done with class, and it’s done with respect to the original novel by Jennifer Weiner.

Working from a script by Susannah Grant (Erin Brokovich), In Her Shoes centres on Rose (Toni Collette) and Maggie (Cameron Diaz), two sisters who are nothing alike.

Rose is a dedicated professional Lawyer who lives an orderly life, and is in the middle of a fairly hot and heavy affair with a senior partner at her law firm. Maggie on the other hand is the spirited party girl who drifts from guy to guy, stopping for all the free drinks she can, and robbing her family blind all the while.

After a heated argument between the ladies, Maggie leaves the rainy streets of Philadelphia for sunny Miami, after discovering some long lost letters from her Grandmother, Ella (Shirley MacLaine), and it’s here where the movie succeeds the most, by maintaining two excellent storylines spread over the two cities. Rose is left with a broken-heart, little realising the affections that a colleague has for her, and Maggie struggles to finally become an adult with the help of Ella.

So, from the above, you can probably tell that I enjoyed the hell out of this film. The main fear I had going in, is that I have never been a fan of Cameron Diaz in the past, and I wasn’t sure that she would handle meaty material such as this.

Again, I’m betting a lot of credit goes to Curtis and his style in working with actors, but credit where it’s due – Cameron is wonderful in this movie.

Not only does she handle a crucial side-story with absolute dignity, but she also manages to make even the manliest of audience members get a lump in their throat during at least one point of the film.

Toni Collette is someone I’ve always enjoyed watching on the screen, and here she is no different. She looks beautiful, works extremely well with both Cameron and Shirley, and handles her character with the type of class that anyone else would potentially have overblown to massive proportions.

I can’t say enough great things about her.

Shirley MacLaine – well, it’s three for three with the stars of In Her Shoes. Shirley is another person that I haven’t had much time for in the past. It’s not a knock against her skill, but outside of The Apartment, I could probably count on one hand the number of films that I’ve seen with her.

Here, she is great in her role as the “new” Grandma – ‘nuff said. With that in mind though, the entire supporting cast are fantastic, from the retirees in Miami through to the good hearted Simon (Mark Feuerstein), it is just a top-shelf movie across the board.

I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a soft touch when it comes to films like this. The Notebook and A Walk To Remember have long been two of my favourite“nice” movies, and with that to gauge my opinion by, I have no doubt that you will love In Her Shoes if you even remotely liked either of those.

It’s a wonderful story filled with great performances, and tugs at the heart-strings just enough to make you leave the cinema with a nice fuzzy feeling inside. I loved it.

Oh, by the way, when you go looking for the E.E. Cummings poem after the film (and you will!), it’s called “I Carry Your Heart With Me. Better use of a poem I’ve not seen since Four Weddings and A Funeral.

5 out of 5

In Her Shoes
Australian release: Thursday the 13th of October, 2005
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Feuerstein, Brooke Smith.
Director: Curtis Hanson.
Website: Click here.

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