In Her Shoes
Studio: 20th Century Fox Distribution
Rated: PG-13
Website: http://www.inhershoesmovie.com/
Release Date: 2005-10-14
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Feuerstein, Brooke Smith
Director: Curtis Hanson
Screenwriter: Susannah Grant
Music Score: Mark Isham
WorkNameSort: In Her Shoes
Our Rating: 3.00
In predictably polarized fashion, Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette play motherless, yin-and-yang sisters the former an illiterate skank, the latter a homely lawyer in this five-hanky dramedy by Curtis Hanson. The two leads, along with retirement-home granny Shirley MacLaine, embark on Campbellian journeys of self-discovery and self-criticism, learning invaluable life lessons about love, family and forgiveness. At 130 minutes, In Her Shoes is excessive in length and sentimentality, its third act a showcase for one maudlin conflict resolution after another. The drama, as tear-stained as it is, still works far better than the lazy, sitcom-y humor, which is mainly at the precious expense of the square fogies in MacLaine’s community. In Her Shoes can’t help but succumb to a few of the negative connotations of “chick flicks,” but luckily it doesn’t parade them, like, say, Nancy Meyers’ movies. It’s still pretty engaging and at times quite poignant, bolstered by terrific acting and crisp, effective direction. While the film may suffer from too many syrupy subplots, Hanson juggles them all like the consummate craftsman he is. But the film’s most refreshing redeemer is how it mostly evades an opening-credits omen: “Executive produced by Tony Scott.”
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2005.