A Review by Phil Calabro
2005, 20th Century Fox, Dir. Curtis Hanson - Starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Feuerstein, Richard Burgi, Candice Azzara, Ken Howard, Dorothy Kelly, Jerry Adler, Norman Lloyd, Jason Peck, Anson Mount, John Mastrangelo Sr.
'In Her Shoes' is like teaching an old dog new tricks - to take old, formulaic material and give it new insight and dimension. Here we have an intense and intimate profiling of two sisters, Maggie and Rose, who are probably two of the most different people on this planet. They trip, they break their high heels walking in the snow, and they have their obligatory 'dog-walking sequence' that seems to be a deleted scene from this year's ill-fated Diane Lane movie. These are stereotypes, yes, but I have a hunch that they are necessary. We have the plain-jane and the wild child, completely aggravated by one another's way of life. But as they are parted from one another, each learns what the other was telling them all along - they both are trying to break out of these cliches so badly, and to reconnect with one another. They're sisters, afterall. Curtis Hanson's cautious editing and pinpoint analyzation of the characters is what makes 'In Her Shoes' shine so brightly.
Rose Feller (Collette) is a hardworking, upperclass lawyer in Philadelphia, whose life is so organized to the point of obsessive Post-It notes and organizing the refridgerator. Maggie Feller (Diaz) is a lazy, disorganized nymph who has pretty much clung to Rose all her life only because she can't live on her own. Rose has just fallen in love with her boss Jim (Burgi), but when a drunken and infuriated Maggie woos him to bed with her, Rose can't take it anymore and throws her sister out of her apartment.
A brief recap: their mother is dead, their father (Howard) lives with an annoying stepmother, and letters from their grandmother Ella (MacLaine) have been kept under wraps for no particular reason. But when Maggie finds the letters, she travels to Florida to live there for the time being. Ella is a hard nut to crack, as she finds Maggie's sudden appearance a little startling. Soon, Rose is engaged to charming former co-worker Simon (Feuerstein), Maggie has found solace in working in a retirement home, and Ella wants to meet Rose and the rest of the family. The film captures the various metamorphosises of the three females, and how it changes their lifes as a whole.
It's really quite hard to sum up the movie's 2 hour and 10 minute plotline, as it really fluctuates from dilemma to dilemma and never sticks to one particular topic. Surprisingly, Hanson takes each character and gives them their respective screentime and importance. Toni Collette is bland and bloated, as her character begins - she spends her time fretting over her duties and life whenever she's not deprecating herself in front of a mirror. Only until halfway through the movie does she learn to stop caring about everything around her, and live independently without the worries of criticism - from others and especially herself.
I never would have expected to see Cameron Diaz in this mature of a role, but this is probably one of her best swings of stardom. She is solid, stern, and ferocious in the role of the skanky Maggie. Her no-worries attitude always leaves her face down in the mud, and slowly but surely it's her relationship with Ella that breaks her away from dependency. Shirley MacLaine is stupendous as Ella Hirsch, the smart cookie of a grandmother who plays the parental role rather than a comforting fogey. Her wit and powerful screen presence is to die for.
Also impressive is how Hanson handles supporting characters. I refer you to the definition of 'dance partner syndrome': at the end of romantic comedies, there's always this big dance where one supporting character finds another supporting character who's been ignored for awhile. Before the credits roll, you see these supporting characters dancing as the camera fades away. We see plenty of this, but the audience also glimpses the action beforehand. The supporting characters, whether it's the old widowed husband Lewis Feldman (Alder), who's after the affections of Ella, or the Fellers' father Michael (Howard), they also develop like the other characters.
The most powerful scene in 'In Her Shoes' is the introduction of a character only known as 'The Professor'. Living in the retirement home, the professor is blind and continuously asks Maggie to read to him. When she finally accepts the offer, her life changes forever. She reads 'One Art', a poem by Elizabeth Bishop, which details loss - an omen that Maggie takes to heart and realizes that she can't live staying angry at Rose. Also important is the e.e.cummings poem that finalizes the movie. Both show a prolific and matured state of mind that Hanson has directed the film in.
'In Her Shoes' is a wise-cracking yet intelligent film that strays from the definition of 'chick flick'. It strikes the heartstrings like a 12-string bass and leaves a resonating impression on the audience. With over a dozen themes to deal with, Hanson knocks them all out of the ballpark.
