Worth a walk In Her Shoes

So,I finally got to see In Her Shoes yesterday(went alone because Little Sister would rather skip thru a bed of red hot coals in a pair of jellies than sit thru a "chick flick",besides we both saw Serenity last week so our movie qouta is filled for a bit),braving the rain and picking up the Veronica Mars season 1 DVD set(no surprise there).



The plot is not much changed from the book:older ,responsible sister Rose(beautifully played by Toni Collette) clashes with younger, sexy but insecure sis Maggie(Cameron Diaz,displaying more than one talent) which leads to reuniting with long banished grandmother Ella(Shirley Maclaine,who can do these kinds of roles in her sleep at this point). In the book,Maggie had a brief interlude at Princeton but in the interest of limited movie time,that was ditched but her educational reawakening was well woven into the film.

Fans of the book will be happyto see that the two poems important to the story are kept in("One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop and e.e.cummings' "i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)")and provide some of the most emotionally impacting scenes in the film.


Thank the gods that Curtis Hansen and Susannah Grant were the director and writer for IHS.In other hands,all the tired female friendly film cliches would've been overflowing:the fake get happy spontaneous moment(usually involving bad lip synching..paging Ashlee Simpson!),the overdone flashbacks with diabetes inducing soundtrack,the makeover montage complete with girl power approved background music...none of that here,folks.

The flashbacks are restricted along with On screen Narration. The actors are allowed to tell the story in a more natural way without being given a cinematic safety net. One sequence in particular springs to mind,when Rose is determined to click the light off before getting intimate with her current love interest and he is as determined to keep it on. No goofy lines and/or comic music cues,the actors say everything they need to with their faces. Very grown-up here.

So many of these "chick lit" tales are bashed for feeding women unfeminista fantasies but if you look past the pink covers or the Hollywood casting(*cough*get over yourself,Lisa Schwarzbaum*cough*),you'll find some really good stories about things that do matter,like making peace with your past,finding the right person to love you for the right reasons and how to get along with your sister even if she keeps borrowing your stuff and wrecking it. In Her Shoes is not just a great chick flick,it's a wonderful family film to share with your nearest anddearest. I wouldn't force Little Sister to see it but there's always DVD for a second chance:)