in her shoes

In Her Shoes is definitely a chick flick. There’s no way to get around this. Based on the book written by the famed chick lit writer, Jennifer Weiner, this story brings together all of the ingredients of a good Weiner novel: women in conflict, women dealing with fears of being fat, stupid, ugly, unwanted, lost, and promiscuous.

Weiner (and the screenplay writer Susannah Grant) approach these common issues in a way that makes you feel the struggle of the women, empathize with them, cheer them on, and want to kick their butts to make them see what kinds of fools they are being.

Cameron Diaz plays the part of Maggie, a lost woman who is still a little girl. She is promiscuous (and even sleeps with her sister’s lover). She steals money. She can’t hold down a job. She can’t read. But she is cute and knows how to use that.

Toni Colette is the consumate actress. She plays her roles in such a way that you feel like she could be one of your friends. She is the everywoman in so many ways. She gets what it’s like to be one of us. Colette plays Rose, Maggie’s older, more responsible, more plain sister. Rose watches out for Maggie, rescuing her when she needs to be rescued.

This movie, now out on DVD, is about sisterhood, friendship, love and loss. The poem Maggie quotes at the end defines it all perfectly:

i carry your heart with me
e.e cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

B+

(photo courtesy of imdb)