Movie Review

In Her Shoes

Director Curtis Hanson has managed to do some incredible things throughout his career. He turned Meryl Streep into an action hero in "The River Wild,? turned Eminem into an actor in "8 Mile,? and now he returns with another great achievement ? creating a chick flick that even heterosexual males will absolutely fawn over in "In Her Shoes.? This is a delightfully sweet and moving film that manages to be both funny and emotionally poignant, cutting to the bone of its three main characters. This is also the best work Cameron Diaz and Shirley McClaine have done in a while, but still it's not enough to hide the star making turn delivered by Toni Collette.

She plays Rose, a successful lawyer forced to take in her younger sister Maggie (Cameron Diaz). Maggie is a lazy, irresponsible, and wild tramp who likes to get drunk and have sex with random men. She has no job, her days are spent shopping and loafing, and until she was kicked out by her stepmother, lived at home. Rose has always tried to protect Maggie since the suicide of their mentally ill mother. She knows that Maggie is hindered by her dyslexia and her willingness to rely on her body to get what she wants. Rose feels that Maggie is deserving of sympathy for these reasons but deep down would just love to see the day when Maggie miraculously starts acting like an adult for a change. "Middle-aged tramps aren't cute," she tells her sister.

Maggie has already accepted her role as a moocher, however. She borrows Rose's clothes, money, car, and whatever she can get her hands on, until she finally goes too far. Rose comes home one night to find Maggie and her boss/boyfriend having sex in the apartment. This is the final straw. An enraged Rose kicks Maggie out of the apartment, disgusted that her own sister could treat her in such a way. The whole ordeal throws Rose into a mental breakdown. Her whole life has been glued together by her job and taking care of her sister, but now that life has fallen apart she can't stand it.

Maggie meanwhile has picked her next victim to mooch off. While going through some old things, she finds letters addressed to her and her sister that were hidden away. They are from a grandmother that she never even knew she had. Her name is Ella (Shirley McClaine), the mother of their mother, who now lives in a retirement community in Florida. Through the years Ella has been pushed out of the family by their father, who feels she was too controlling and didn't want to subject his daughters to her. In a way, Ella believes that's true. She has mixed feelings towards the way she handled the relationship between her and her mentally ill daughter, but she also feels she should have been their for the girls more, and not just let herself be pushed aside.

When Maggie arrives at her door, it is a chance at some redemption. From a young age, Maggie has been shielded and pampered but Ella is not about to do the same thing. She makes it clear that the only way Maggie is going to get any money is if she works for it. Maggie becomes a nurse at the home where, surprisingly enough, she meets an English professor who teaches her how to read and interpret poetry.
Now that Maggie is finally out of her life, Rose is also developing a life of her own after personal tragedy. She starts a new job as a dog walker, gets a new boyfriend who may become a whole lot more, and basically starts her life all over again. The whole thing is especially inspiring to see, especially in the way Collette brings the character to screen. Rose is a shy, protective older sister with a bit of a weight problem. She is the proverbial doormat when we first see her ? a woman so worried about everybody else that she has no esteem left for herself. Her breakdown is essentially the best part of the movie. Watching her brandish a knife in front of her disapproving stepmother or find love with a nice guy become moments worthy of standing ovations. Collette strikes just the right balance of love and aggravation that not only makes her compelling, but incredibly root-able.

Cameron Diaz also couldn't be better cast as Maggie. The actress is steadily becoming known as the hot chick who walks around much of her movies in her underwear, but here she also has a real character to play. Maggie's entire upbringing has turned her into a defiant slut who doesn't even respect the good things that people do for her. She has a long journey of self-discovery ahead of her and Diaz makes those scenes both moving and heartwarmingly real. Her reading of an EE Cumming's poem, "I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)," at the end of the film, has all the more impact because she shows her true acting talent here.

Maggie meets her perfect match in Shirley McClaine's Ella. Ella is a tough but compassionate older woman, who through giving Maggie a life of her own, is also trying to make up for her own lack of involvement during the first couple decades of the young girl's life. McClaine and Francine Beers (playing Ella's neighbor, Mrs. Lefkowitz) also provide the film's best laughs. When Ella wants to prove that she's hip to Maggie's generation, her and Mrs. Lefkowitz make cosmopolitans and watch "Sex and the City" with her. When Maggie tells someone to respect her privacy, Mrs. Lefkowitz cracks, ?This coming from a girl who wears a postage stamp for a bathing suit.? The movie is essentially about the three women but Mrs. Lefkowitz is a scene-stealer.

Maggie, Ella, and Rose are all victims of circumstance. They are each united by a love of shoes, but also by the fact that their family and, like it or not, are always going to have an effect on each other's lives. Curtis Hanson offers us a serious but never melodramatic interpretation of family dysfunction and how at the end of the day those infuriating people we call family are the ones we need the most. "In Her Shoes" is a funny and touching film that ranks among the best of the year.

Craig's Grade: A-

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%