Delayed Reaction: In Her Shoes

Premise: Two sisters - one achingly uptight (Toni Collette), one disastrously free-spirited (Cameron Diaz) - go their separate ways after a fight and figure parts of their lives out.

It's pretty much impossible to sell someone on this movie for the right reasons. I know, because I was one of those hard sells. I remember when this movie came out, I dismissed it as some broad female-focused comedy. Basically, it looked like The Sweetest Thing. I have nothing against The Sweetest Thing, but it's a pretty disposable movie. Most movies are.

I hadn't thought about In Her Shoes again until I started listening to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. They talk about In Her Shoes a lot. I just figured it was a weird movie that the hosts bonded over. Kind of like how a buddy of mine and I loved Rat Race and talked about it way more than it deserved. They kept insisting that it was actually a really good movie though. By the time they finally did an episode focusing on it, I decided to give it a try to see if I could rely on their taste.

And, yeah. This movie is both really good and really hard to pitch. The first 30 minutes or so are rough and cliched. It makes the movie look really contrived, like dozens of movies I've seen before. Then it takes a turn. When the sisters separate, both their stories get more interesting. Diaz reforms and Collette opens up. Shirley MacLaine shows up and gives the movie a whole new dimension. Pretty quickly, this became my favorite Cameron Diaz role. It's also the most I've liked MacLaine since, uh, Terms of Endearment (I haven't seen a lot of Shirley MacLaine's movies). This movie has a tremendous amount of heart. I fell in love with all the main characters a couple times each.

As I've already said a couple times, I really can't capture what's great about this movie. All I can say is that if you are one of the people like me who dismissed it when it first came out, you should check it out. Many of you will be delightfully surprised.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend