wusmmik
10-13-2005, 02:49 AM
In Her Shoes Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, Shirley MacLaine, dir.Curtis Hanson
In Her Shoes is a good movie at times thanks to excellent acting and tight direction, but the script from Susannah Grant is a little too loose-limbed for impatient moviegoers.
The story revolves around a tense, but loving relationship between the reckless Maggie (Cameron Diaz) and her more responsible-yet-uptight sister Rose (Toni Collette). Basically, Cameron shines in her role bringing in some of the dramatic skill she demonstrated in "Being John Malkovich"-while Toni carries the emotional depth of the film with a performance that is quietly nuanced. Still, the script almost ventures into Lifetime territory with its early revelation but then wisely pulls back into off-season fall film turf with the introduction of Maggie and a blind literature professor (sternly played by the venerable Norman Lloyd..see Hitchcock for his best work)
Shirley MacLaine waltzes in to revive her tough cookie Aurora-aura from "Terms of Endearment" and disarms with her stunned silence in many places. The underappreciated Mark Feuerstein is immensely believable and still somehow geekish as Rose's love interest. But, it's Curtis Hanson's direction that really keeps the film from winding up in sitcom territory as he gets some subtlety and sadness from the always beautiful Cameron Diaz and gives the always impressive Toni Collette space to bloom and grow as Rose.
While it's not Oscar material, it's great escapism for a fall day that not overly weepy or cliched..ok, it's a little cliched. Finally, guys who run screaming from the dreaded "chick flick" take note that Diaz is scantily clad for the first third.
If you like this one, see Toni Collette in "Japanese Story", go back for some classic Shirley MacLaine in "The Apartment" or get a really engrossing story of women in Almodovar's stunning "All About My Mother"
In Her Shoes is a good movie at times thanks to excellent acting and tight direction, but the script from Susannah Grant is a little too loose-limbed for impatient moviegoers.
The story revolves around a tense, but loving relationship between the reckless Maggie (Cameron Diaz) and her more responsible-yet-uptight sister Rose (Toni Collette). Basically, Cameron shines in her role bringing in some of the dramatic skill she demonstrated in "Being John Malkovich"-while Toni carries the emotional depth of the film with a performance that is quietly nuanced. Still, the script almost ventures into Lifetime territory with its early revelation but then wisely pulls back into off-season fall film turf with the introduction of Maggie and a blind literature professor (sternly played by the venerable Norman Lloyd..see Hitchcock for his best work)
Shirley MacLaine waltzes in to revive her tough cookie Aurora-aura from "Terms of Endearment" and disarms with her stunned silence in many places. The underappreciated Mark Feuerstein is immensely believable and still somehow geekish as Rose's love interest. But, it's Curtis Hanson's direction that really keeps the film from winding up in sitcom territory as he gets some subtlety and sadness from the always beautiful Cameron Diaz and gives the always impressive Toni Collette space to bloom and grow as Rose.
While it's not Oscar material, it's great escapism for a fall day that not overly weepy or cliched..ok, it's a little cliched. Finally, guys who run screaming from the dreaded "chick flick" take note that Diaz is scantily clad for the first third.
If you like this one, see Toni Collette in "Japanese Story", go back for some classic Shirley MacLaine in "The Apartment" or get a really engrossing story of women in Almodovar's stunning "All About My Mother"