"In Her Shoes" is a movie that takes an awfully long time to really get itself going. It almost seems as though there are two movies going on even though they are both from the same book: 1) Rose (Toni Colette) coming to terms with how much being her sister's keeper has saved her from dealing with the fact that she hasn't really allowed herself to develop or find out what she's really about; and 2) Cameron Diaz's shallow and self-absorbed "bad girl", a habitual user, going down to Florida to scam her grandmother and finally discovering that she's not such an unredeemable loser after all.
The problem for me is that the latter is such well-worn territory that showing all her episodes of personal failure prior to her grand faux pas of having sex with her sister's boyfriend become increasingly repetitive wastes of time -- especially the sequence with the two guys who take her to the impound lot and the first sequence that lands her in jail. None of this stuff -- in my opinion-- is needed in the film. We all know users like her; aside from the allusion to her dyslexia problem that she later addresses with Norman Lloyd, the other messes she creates are run-of-the-mill. They are treated with importance while shedding no new light on her character. Once we get to Florida and Shirley Maclaine catches onto her, then her ensuing transformation is worth watching, but by then we're halfway through the film. Hanson also seems obsessed with showing us everything he finds interesting about filming a movie that is supposed to take place in Philadelphia.
So much for the film's pacing problems. Everything else works quite well. The performances are all excellent. Shirley Maclaine, Norman Lloyd, Jery Adler, and Mark Feuerstein are all terrific in their supporting roles with the last showing a very nice and quirky chemistry with Collette. Maclaine is surprisingly understated and not surprisingly magnificent.
The problem for me is that the latter is such well-worn territory that showing all her episodes of personal failure prior to her grand faux pas of having sex with her sister's boyfriend become increasingly repetitive wastes of time -- especially the sequence with the two guys who take her to the impound lot and the first sequence that lands her in jail. None of this stuff -- in my opinion-- is needed in the film. We all know users like her; aside from the allusion to her dyslexia problem that she later addresses with Norman Lloyd, the other messes she creates are run-of-the-mill. They are treated with importance while shedding no new light on her character. Once we get to Florida and Shirley Maclaine catches onto her, then her ensuing transformation is worth watching, but by then we're halfway through the film. Hanson also seems obsessed with showing us everything he finds interesting about filming a movie that is supposed to take place in Philadelphia.
So much for the film's pacing problems. Everything else works quite well. The performances are all excellent. Shirley Maclaine, Norman Lloyd, Jery Adler, and Mark Feuerstein are all terrific in their supporting roles with the last showing a very nice and quirky chemistry with Collette. Maclaine is surprisingly understated and not surprisingly magnificent.