In Her Shoes (2005) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Curtis Hanson

Starring:  Toni Collette, Cameron Diaz, Shirley MacLaine, Ken Howard, Candice Azzara, Francine Beers, Mark Feuerstein

In Her Shoes is about two sisters who desperately seek and find change which puts smiles on their faces for the first time perhaps ever.   Maggie (Diaz) is a party girl who drinks too much, parties too much, and makes terrible choices in men and friends.   She dreams of being an MTV VJ, but her poor reading skills prevent that.   Her sister Rose (Collette) is a stressed-out, overworked lawyer having an affair with her boss, who soon becomes one of Maggie's terrible choices in men.   Their father Michael (Howard) is a loving man married to a woman (Azzara) neither sister likes.   If they have one thing in common, it's their dislike for their stepmother.  

What makes In Her Shoes different is that the rift between the sisters turns out to be the catalyst for each's meaningful lifestyle alterations.   Maggie soon discovers she has a grandmother named Ella (MacLaine) living in Florida whom she has never met, due to issues stemming from her mother's suicide.   At first, Maggie simply wants to fleece Ella for whatever she can grab.   Ella discovers this, and then makes a surprising offer:  Get a job and I'll match what you make dollar for dollar.   Maggie finds a job working at an assisted living facility and reads to a kindly blind ex-professor (Norman Lloyd), who coaches her through reading poetry and using her brains for something other than conning people.

Rose finds by accident that she loves dog walking and decides to start a dog-walking business.  Attorney Simon Stein (Feuerstein), who used to work with Rose and adored her from afar, becomes her unexpected fiance as she tries to find Maggie and allow her back in her life.   The actors fit their roles perfectly and are able to handle the upheaval in their lives touchingly.   We think we know who these people are and how they'll end up, but we are pleased to be wrong.   Even Ken Howard provides us with a sympathetic man trying to please everyone and forced to make a painful choice long ago which would excise his daughters' grandmother from their lives, a choice he regrets with every fiber of his being.   What makes In Her Shoes work so well is how it allows its characters the freedom to make poor decisions, learn from them, and come out better on the other side.