In Her Shoes is the story of two sisters falling out and eventually patching things up again, which will either make you want to see it or have you running for cover. If it weren’t for the fact that it stars 2 of my favourite actresses – the brilliant Toni Colette and (the slightly less brilliant) Cameron Diaz, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with it. But it did, so I did.

The story centres around the two sisters, stereotypically dependable Rose (Toni Collette) and stereotypically unreliable Maggie (Cameron Diaz). At the start of the movie Maggie is doing her normal at school reunions – getting drunk, ending up in the lavatory with some guy she may or may not remember the name of, passing out… and of course it’s Rose who has to come to her rescue. When Maggie’s antics get her kicked out by stereotypical evil stepmother Sydelle (Candice Azzara), where does she end up but at Rose’s? When this happens Rose really, really tries to help (or make!) Maggie become more dependable and responsible, but when Maggie seduces Rose’s lover and colleague Jim Danvers (Richard “The Sentinel” Burgi) it’s the final straw.

So Maggie goes off to find a long-lost relative to sponge off… and this is where things start to happen. She meets her grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) and after a while begins to work in an old people’s home. Well, I’m not going to tell you what happens after that but you’d have to be pretty dense not to work out the ending.

No doubt this was supposed to be a heart-warming tale but in many ways it failed because, even when she’s supposed to be a nice person, Maggie is still incredibly annoying. You feel no sympathy for her at the start of the film – she thinks nothing of going through relatives’ houses stealing any money she can find, for instance, and adds a whole new shade of meaning to the word “selfish”. It’s more realistic I guess that we don’t have one of these miracle makeovers of the personality that are so often perpetrated by Hollywood, but I still didn’t like her much more at the end of the film than by the start. Collette and Diaz play their roles well, Collette once more showing why she’s one of the best actresses around. The real star performances though were by some of the older cast members, particularly Jerry Adler and Francine Beers as members of the old peoples’ home. The pacing was too slow though and though there were some funny moments (not enough for my liking but there were at least some) and one or two relatively emotional scenes. However, most of the film laboured and a couple of the big scenes really felt completely over the top and thus ineffective. Some of the dialogue is good (mainly the funny stuff), but some of the supposedly emotional dialogue has you reaching for the sick bag.

Overall In Her Shoes wasn’t exactly a terrible film but rather like Elizabethtown, suffers largely from sloppy pacing, being somewhat overlong, and having one of the main characters being extremely annoying throughout. Recommended, but very marginally.

Over Details

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for thematic material, language and some sexual content.(UK rating 12A)
Runtime: 130 min (too long!)
Directed by: Curtis Hanson


Related Links
Toni Colette – About A Boy

Candice Azzara – Catch Me If You Can


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See Also

Top Ten Films of 2005

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Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older