In Her Shoes

In Her Shoes (2005) – on rental. This was a pleasant find on DVD rental that arrived together with The Clone Wars several evenings ago. And fortunately too, as In Her Shoes was a wonderfully sweet and thoughtful film that studies relationships in broken families. This film nicely washed the stink off Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

In Her Shoes involves three women characters: an irresponsible, almost good-for-nothing pretty bimbo Maggie (played by Cameron Diaz), her workaholic, frumpy and slightly overweight sister Rose (Australian actress Toni Collette) and their grandmother Ella (Shirley MacLaine).

Rose leads a unexciting but orderly and purposeful life of a well-paid associate in a law firm and is in a romantic relationship with her firm’s partner. Maggie shows up one day – after hoping from job to job to job – all drunk. Rose while fiercely disapproving of her sister’s extravagant behavior takes her in, which Maggie promptly returns the favor of by having Rose’s car impounded and generally disrespecting her home. The last straw comes when Maggie sleeps with Rose’s boyfriend, and act which emotionally destroys Rose. Told to leave and never return, Maggie travels to find a last relation she never knew – her aged grandmother who now works in a retirement home.

The film tells the story of each of the three women’s discovery and restoration of their relations, and also redemption. So yes, there’s a happy conclusion of sorts at the film’s end – and that’s not giving too much away. The journey to that ending is what counts, and is at times heart warming and tearful, and finally representative of sisterly bonding, despite all the character clashes and friction each have from start to end.

Even though Diaz gets first billing in the cast list, Collette and MacLaine are the real standouts. Diaz isn’t in a role that’s dissimilar to previous ones: she already looks the part of the beautiful blonde bombshell, and that in this film she’s also an insufferable and illiterate alcoholic are just additional character layers for her to sink into.

I think it’s Collette’s Rose as the person who’s on the receiving end of her sister’s indiscretions that audiences will most empathize with. I haven’t seen a lot of Collette’s screen performances yet – the most recent one being the made for television movie Tsunami: The Aftermath from a few years ago – but after In Her Shoes, will make an effort to. MacLaine does a feisty take on a grandmother who’s secretly burdened guilt of not being there for her granddaughters when their mother passed away.

The film at 130 minutes nicely too runs at a relatively longer length than most comedy-dramas of this type. So, the story-telling takes its time, and there are plenty of story-development scenes, and Rose’s learning to love again and Maggie’s acceptance into the elderly community are moves along nicely and doesn’t feel rushed at all. The only clunker I can think of – and why I took a star away from my rating of this film – lies in its a couple of scenes contrived to squeeze tears out from you.

But then again, if sniffing if not outright crying in this sort of sisterly-love films is your thing, that wouldn’t bother you very much. The both of us liked the film, and Ling even gave it her stamp of approval.:)