In Her Shoes
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| In Her Shoes | |
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 Original poster |
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| Directed by | Curtis Hanson |
| Produced by | Tony Scott Curtis Hanson Ridley Scott |
| Written by | Susannah Grant Based on a novel by Jennifer Weiner |
| Starring | Cameron Diaz Toni Collette Shirley MacLaine |
| Music by | Mark Isham |
| Cinematography | Terry Stacey |
| Editing by | Lisa Zeno Churgin Craig Kitson |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | September 24, 2005 |
| Running time | 130 minutes |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
In Her Shoes is a 2005 American drama film directed by Curtis Hanson. The screenplay by Susannah Grant is based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer Weiner.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
Rose and Maggie are sisters with nothing in common other than their shoe size. The older, plainer, slightly overweight Rose is a responsible Philadelphia attorney; Maggie is an attractive, flighty free spirit who can't keep a job. Rose grudgingly allows Maggie to move in with her when she's tossed out by their stepmother, but their strained relationship is severed completely when Rose discovers Maggie in bed with Jim Danvers, a lawyer she had been dating from her firm.
While looking for money in her father and stepmother's home, Maggie discovers a bundle of Valentine's Day and birthday and Christmas cards, each containing some cash, addressed to her and Rose from a grandmother she never knew she had (their mother died while Rose and Maggie were young). Homeless and with no job prospects, she impulsively heads to Delray Beach, Florida to find her. Ella welcomes her enthusiastically, but Maggie's presence starts to become a burden when she shows no sign of doing anything other than sunbathing and sleeping. She asks Ella to finance an acting career for her; Ella agrees to match her salary dollar-for-dollar if she finds gainful employment, and Maggie accepts a job in the Assisted Living section of her grandmother's retirement community.
Meanwhile, Rose quits her job and becomes a dog walker. She begins to date Simon Stein, a former law firm colleague whose advances she had previously rejected.
As Rose begins to loosen up and become more carefree, Maggie learns to accept responsibility. She befriends a patient, a blind one-time Professor of English Literature, who realizes the girl suffers from dyslexia and helps her overcome it by having her read poetry to him. She also starts a personal shopper business for Ella's elderly neighbors, putting her fashion sense to good use.
Ella, hoping to mend the rift between the sisters, sends Rose an airplane ticket without letting her know Maggie is living with her. Rose is excited to hear from her long-lost grandmother, but her pleasure quickly sours when she discovers her sister's presence. A series of revelations about the family's history leads to a rapprochement of the two young women, who realize that they complement and are a part of each other, their grandmother, and their father. The film ends with Rose's wedding to Simon, where Maggie reads a poem establishing the repaired relationship between the sisters.
[edit] Production notes
Briny Breezes, Florida, a small coastal retirement community located on Florida State Road A1A, served as the setting for Ella's development, and many of the residents served as extras on the film.
Rufus, the dog Maggie kidnaps, is a mixed breed, although in Jennifer Weiner's book he was a purebred pug. In a featurette on the film's DVD release, Curtis Hanson explained he used a mixed breed because he hoped to inspire audiences to rescue such animals from the pound rather than invest in an expensive breed.
The poems Maggie reads in the film are "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop and "I Carry Your Heart With Me" by e.e. cummings.
The film grossed $32,880,591 in the US and $49,322,439 in foreign markets for a worldwide total box office of $82,203,030 [1].
[edit] Principal cast
- Cameron Diaz ..... Maggie Feller
- Toni Collette ..... Rose Feller-Stein
- Shirley MacLaine ..... Ella Hirsch
- Mark Feuerstein ..... Simon Stein
- Ken Howard ..... Michael Feller
- Candice Azzara ..... Sydelle Feller
- Richard Burgi ..... Jim Danvers
- Norman Lloyd ..... The Professor
- Brooke Smith ..... Amy
[edit] Critical reception
In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis wondered, "Is there anything that the director Curtis Hanson can't do when it comes to the movies - any genre, any story, any setup? In his newest film . . . [he] wrests a richly textured story of love from a seemingly unlikely source . . . that subgenre of fiction known as chick lit . . . the joy of this unassuming, generous film is that it never sells out its characters' desires or ours." [2]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the film "starts out with the materials of an ordinary movie and becomes a rather special one. The emotional payoff at the end is earned, not because we see it coming as the inevitable outcome of the plot, but because it arrives out of the blue and yet, once we think about it, makes perfect sense. It tells us something fundamental and important about a character, it allows her to share that something with those she loves, and it does it in a way we could not possibly anticipate. Like a good poem, it blindsides us with the turn it takes right at the end." [3]
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle felt the film "is almost a true statement, almost an honest rendering of a sibling relationship and almost not a sentimental Hallmark card of a movie. But it compromises with itself and ends up in a limbo of meaninglessness, with writer Susannah Grant and director Curtis Hanson strenuously pretending to have told one kind of story, when actually they've told quite another . . . The people who made this film . . . should look no further when trying to understand why In Her Shoes lands with such little impact. The characters seem authentic - until the chick-flick template distorts them." [4]
Carino Chocano of the Los Angeles Times called it "a curious movie, hovering for upward of two hours between light and dark, truth and fake uplift, menace and mollycoddling . . . [it] treats love like a pretty accessory to be stored in a plastic box and shoved in the back of a closet when it proves impractical. And ultimately, it's too self-conscious of its role in the marketplace and too hamstrung by its source material to risk being honest at the expense of being liked." [5]
In The Village Voice, Laura Sinagra observed, "Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, who seem just a touch old and a little too gorgeous for the roles of Maggie and Rose, are smart choices for this blend of slapstick and sentiment. Hanson's angles are fresh, his palettes pleasing. And though it might disappoint Manolo-holics, the decorporn is kept to a minimum . . . When they get a chance, Diaz and the always great Collette do right by their scripted tiffs and affections." [6]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film "sexy, touching and astringently funny" and added, "Diaz and Collette are sensational, and MacLaine - underplaying to marvelous effect - does her best acting in years. But it's Hanson's astute directing that makes the film's life lessons go down painlessly, turning the smartly entertaining In Her Shoes into a comfy fit for both sexes." [7]
[edit] Nominations
- Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture (Shirley Maclaine)
- Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama (Toni Collette)
- Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture (Shirley MacLaine)
- Imagen Foundation Award for Best Actress (Cameron Diaz)
- Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress (Toni Collette)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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