Every now and then a film comes along that strikingly makes me sit up and notice what so many other films lack. For IN HER SHOES, it wasn’t that the main characters were so well developed, but that so many of the supporting character were dimensional as well. In so many others films, these smaller characters would be just there to listen to the main characters talk, but here they are fleshed out and given a history with the main characters.
On the surface the story, based on the best-selling “chick lit” title by Jennifer Weiner, seems clichéd. Maggie Feller (Cameron Diaz, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) is the typical blonde, party girl, who just mooches off her family to survive. However, her evil stepmother Sydelle (Candice Azzara, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN) has had enough and kicks her out after she gets plastered at her high school reunion, forcing her on her frumpy, lawyer sister Rose (Toni Collette, THE SIXTH SENSE), who has surprised herself with her recent affair with the handsome partner at her law firm named Jim Danvers (Richard Burgi, CELLULAR).
Maggie and Rose have been best friends forever, but Rose is tired of having to look after Maggie. The rivalry escalates to the point when Maggie sleeps with Jim, which spurs Rose to kick her baby sister out on the street. Desperate, Maggie has discovered that she has a maternal grandmother, named Ella Hirsch (Shirley MacLaine, THE APARTMENT), who she didn’t know existed. So Maggie heads to Florida to milk her grandmother for whatever she can get.
Back in Philadelphia, Rose takes time off from her law firm and starts a dog walking business while she keeps Maggie’s disappearance a secret from her father Michael (Ken Howard, THE NET). While recovering from the Jim trauma, she runs into her former colleague, Simon Stein (Mark Feuerstein, WHAT WOMEN WANT), who all but insists on taking her out. Other key characters include Rose’s cynical best friend Amy (Brooke Smith, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), Ella’s best friend Mrs. Lefkowitz (Francine Beers, KEEPING THE FAITH), Ella’s admirer Lewis (Jerry Adler, FIND ME GUILTY) and the blind Professor (Norman Lloyd, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE), who helps Maggie overcome her reading problems.
Despite the appearance of being typical, director Curtis Hanson (L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, WONDER BOYS), working from a script by Susannah Grant (ERIN BROCKOVICH), is too good to let this story wallow in trite sentimentality or melodrama. The characters are so well defined and the performers are so committed that they never seem stale or unbelievable. Even smaller characters like Amy or Mrs. Lefkowitz are given histories with the main characters in only a few lines. The economy at which the story works is wonderful.
Even when the signposts of a typical dramedy veering off into unneeded conflict appear, the film just registers a character’s feelings and doesn’t build it into something that it doesn’t have to be. A perfect example of this is when Rose finally shows up in Florida to meet her grandmother for the first time. The story is certainly Maggie’s, yet both Rose and Ella are allowed to grow too. This touching portrait of sisters who prove that opposites attract is surprising throughout and is the kind of film that is discovered on TV, becoming a perennial favorite for all that see it.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
