After years of giddy Ya-Ya Sisterhoods and giggling Traveling Pants, the latest chick-lit turned chick-flick, In Her Shoes, is a step ahead of the rest.
A tale of two Philadelphia sisters, Shoes is an adult look at female relationships. No pillow fights, no dancing around, no silly scrapbooks. Rose and Maggie Feller are close in age but vastly different in personality. Rose, played by the underrated Toni Collette, is the responsible lawyer with low self-confidence. Her slightly younger, albeit much prettier, sister Maggie (who but Cameron Diaz?) is dyslexic, can’t hold a job and is content with getting by on her looks.
When 28-year-old Maggie gets booted from their dad’s house, she crashes at Rose’s until her big sis comes home to find Maggie in bed with her boyfriend. A screaming match ensues and Maggie is sent packing. The twist? She finds a stack of birthday cards from the grandmother they thought was dead, and goes to stay with her in Miami.
As soon as Maggie leaves, the story picks up. The viewer is clued into how their mother died when they were young, and why grandma (Shirley MacLaine) abandoned them. Meanwhile, Rose quits her job, meets a guy and starts feeling sexier – as indicated by her wardrobe transformation from baggy and high-cut to flattering V-necks. Maggie, on the other hand, gets a job at Grandma’s retirement center, learns to read and starts feeling smarter – as indicated by her wardrobe transformation from bikinis to hospital scrubs.
Collette sums up the relationship when her friend asks her why she puts up with Maggie: “Because, she’s my sister.” But the movie is not just about Rose and Maggie’s sisterhood, it is about the magnitude and variation of female bonds. Director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential) delicately tackles the mother-daughter, grandparent and friend connections. To call the film a chick-flick is misleading; it is obviously targeted to a female audience, but it is more about relationships than estrogen.
Diaz does well without giving Maggie too much depth, but maybe that’s the point. Collette, best known for her Oscar-nominated role as the mother in The Sixth Sense, gives a strong performance that makes Rose a relatable character. Both women mature once they are rifted, each in a way she could not have if the other sister had been there. And they didn’t even have to share a pair of jeans. m
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