Too much of everything

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Newfound compassion and affection renewed - Collette and Diaz make fine screen sisters. Shirley Maclaine guides with warm support. It suffers a little from shoehorned modern relationshipspeak that doesn't always hit the mark.

Is it possible to appreciate a movie and not like it at all? I learned long ago in film school how much it hurts to receive criticism on a project you've poured your heart into, so I'll try to keep my review mostly positive.The acting in In Her Shoes is fantastic. Toni Collette personifies the role, so much so that you can't even imagine anyone else being cast as Rose. She's a hard worker, a realist, a secret believer in love, and struggles between self-loathing and enjoying the good when it comes. Above all, she's the "good kid", the responsible one in comparison to her flighty, stupid, floozy sister Maggie. I'm not trying to be mean by calling her stupid; she contains neither book smarts nor common sense. Cameron Diaz tries to shed her American golden girl image by portraying an incredibly unlikable villain, and it works. Part of the reason I don't like Cameron Diaz is because I can't shake this movie's performance from my mind. Shirley MacLaine plays the girls' estranged grandmother, and she gives a surprisingly warm and feminine performance.My problem with the movie is the message of the story. The two sisters continually clash until Cameron Diaz does the unforgivable and Toni Collette kicks her out, leaving her to flounder on her own. I won't give any spoilers, but at the heart of the story is a "family is family" theme. I don't subscribe to that theory. I don't think being blood related to someone gives them the right to trample all over your life with the assurance of unconditional love and forgiveness. The entire duration of the movie, I side with Toni. I have no sympathy for Cameron, even when she's tossed out on her fanny. Since I'm not on board with the entire point of the movie, it's hard for me to enjoy watching it.My favorite part of the movie is Mark Feuerstein's EWF character. He's ridiculously cute, totally Every Woman's Fantasy. So whenever I'm forced to watch In Her Shoes with my mom, at least there's eye candy to pass the time! Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to graphic sex scenes, and some adult themes, I wouldn't let my kids watch it. Also, there may or may not be a rape scene, so keep that in mind.

I've seen this a few times now and always really enjoy it. Cameron Diaz is amazing as the irresponsible party girl and Toni Collette is always good, here she plays the responsible driven sister. It lines up like your regular romantic comedy/drama but the story is much deeper and I love discovering why 'Maggie' drinks so much and behaves the way she does.After an indiscretion with 'Rose's' boyfriend she goes to stay with the grandmother they didn't know they had and it gets even better with the inclusion of Shirley MacLain and all the characters at the retirement village. One of my favorite scenes would have to be Maggie struggling to read to the blind, aging professor (Norman Lloyd) Powerful and sad.This movie really is about family and I like how the past is slowly revealed and all members in this damaged family get a chance to heal. I'm also partial to 'Rose' running up those infamous steps in Philadelphia. 03.02.14

There is a scene early on in In Her Shoes where sisters Maggie and Rose offer their respective philosophies on life with the aid of a pair of shoes. The promiscuous, immature Maggie (Cameron Diaz) vaunts the life of 'scandal and passion' inbuilt into sexy high heels. Well-ordered Rose (Toni Collette), on the other hand, finds comfort in their steadfastness: 'Shoes always fit'. The scene is fairly reductive of its characters- one of the pitfalls of the 'chick-flick'- but can be forgiven for its placement at the beginning of the film. It sketches Maggie and Rose in broad strokes, but thankfully the nuanced performances of Diaz and Collette develop satisfyingly complex characters as the film progresses.Maggie leeches off of her loved ones, while, conversely, Rose's practise of helping her sister has grown blunt and forceful with years of disappointment. In such crossfire of over-reliance and overbearingness, the sisters inevitably come to a crossroads, and spend the middle portion of the film apart. Rose learns to relinquish responsibility in work and in romance, while Maggie learns to cope with it at the Florida retirement community of the sisters' estranged grandmother (a splendid Shirley Maclaine).Under the direction of Curtis Hanson, the film matures with its protagonists. The initial relationship of the hot mess and her stuffy sister sidesteps cliché and implausibility by layering the characters with likenesses, not least in their unfurling vulnerabilities. Hanson's style of simple, unfussy storytelling and concern for characters saves the film from the potentially mawkish moments of Jennifer Weiner's source novel. Maggie's dyslexia and the sisters' contrasting responses to their family history of mental illness smacks of crude characterization- the former is linked to Maggie's immaturity, while the latter reinforces the sisters' dissimilarity- but Hanson handles this material with a delicate touch. The trio of Hanson, Diaz and Collette underplay these scenes, and the result is quietly affecting.With its warm depiction of the turbulence of sisterhood, the film is occasionally funny and touching, and always entertaining. In Her Shoes doesn't tread new ground. It simply shows that the 'chick-flick' needn't be as patronizing as the label suggests. A pleasure, without the guilt.