I was staying with relatives, to help celebrate my father’s 85th birthday. After a very enjoyable day, he suggested watching a DVD in the evening. I selected a few I hadn’t seen from the large collection, and he chose ‘I could never be your woman’. It stars one of his favourite actresses, Michelle Pfeiffer.
As with so many films I’ve seen recently, the main character, Rosie (Pfeiffer) is in her early forties, and divorced. She works as the producer of a sitcom which is becoming rather tired… and then her boss insists that she must abandon any remotely controversial storylines.
Rosie decides to introduce a new character, and struggles at first to find anyone remotely suitable. But eventually she offers a contract to Adam, an actor in his late twenties. He lifts the show somewhat, and he and Rosie find a mutual attraction, although neither is entirely comfortable about the difference in their ages.
Rosie is very close to her thirteen-year-old daughter Izzie (Saoirse Ronan), who’s going through puberty and has fallen for a boy in her class. He doesn’t seem to want to know, however. Rosie offers her daughter some advice, and I thought their scenes together were some of the best in the film.
Much of the story involves production scenes for Rosie’s TV show, and a very unpleasant PA who tries to cause trouble wherever she can. There were rather too many caricatured characters for my tastes, and an all-too-predictable storyline. It was brought out of the ordinary not by Pfeiffer, although she was good in her role, but by the scenes involving the young teenagers.
Bizarrely, given that the film is mostly set in the real (if somewhat soap-style) world, there are also mystical scenes with a woman whom I thought was supposed to be a guardian angel, or possibly even a voice of conscience. According to IMDB she is intended to be Mother Nature. These scenes spell out the theme of the movie, something to do with moving on and letting the younger generation fall in love and take their place in the world.
The rating is 12A (PG-13) in the US, and that seems to be to be correct. There’s nothing too explicit (although a great deal is implied) and there’s only one violent scene, which isn’t particularly traumatic. It might be of interest to younger teenagers, particularly if they enjoy films about TV production, but it’s really intended for an older audience.
Pleasant enough viewing, but it’s not a film I’d necessarily want to see again.
Review copyright 2017 Sue's DVD Reviews
My relatives in the UK like to shop for birthdays and Christmas from wish-lists (as do I). So from time to time, I browse Amazon’s recommendations to add a few books or DVDs to my list. I’m not entirely sure why this ‘In her shoes’ was suggested to me, however. Perhaps I had rated another film with Cameron Diaz. Or perhaps it was the genre - mildly amusing light ‘rom-com’ style - that led to this suggestion. In any case, the blurb sounded good, the reviews were mostly positive, so I added it. I was given it for Christmas nearly a year ago, and we finally decided to watch it last night.
Actually we had started to watch it about a month ago, on an evening when I was very tired. For some reason I found the opening sequences too confusing, and somewhat gross. We see a lot of shoes, and two young women. One of them is in compromising positions at an office party, then throws up and phones her sister, who’s in bed with someone else. It was hardly an auspicious opening on an evening when I wanted something light and totally undemanding.
However, last night I was more wide awake and willing to try again. I still didn’t much like the opening, but the story quickly becomes more interesting. Cameron Diaz’s character, Maggie, is basically a spoilt brat who can’t keep a job. She seduces men at every opportunity, and even steals money from family and friends. Her older sister Rose (Toni Collette) is sensible, hard-working… and lonely. In almost every respect she is a contrast to Maggie, except that they both like shoes.
They evidently have a stormy relationship, and Rose regularly bails her sister out while trying to persuade her to look for work. But this time Maggie does something so awful that Rose severs the relationship entirely. At that point, Maggie goes to visit a long-lost relative (Shirley MacLaine) and finds herself staying in a retirement centre for senior citizens. Gradually she starts to take more responsibility - and at the same time we see Rose begin to throw off some of the shackles of responsibility, and start to live a more bohemian lifestyle.
There’s a romance involved, but it’s not the main feature of the film, and the hero (Mark Feuerstein) begins as a rather dorky guy, pushing for a date in a not particularly attractive way. The scenes at the retirement centre are wonderful; there are some very amusing scenes, and some great lines. Apparently (as we learned in one of the ‘extras’ on the DVD) the people shown are not regular extras, but the people who were actually living in the centre concerned, playing parts that suited them best. They did a wonderful job, with humour and skill.
Rated 12A (PG-13 in the US), there’s nothing too explicit but several bedroom scenes with strong implications, and some mild swearing. I can’t imagine it would be of any interest to anyone younger than about fifteen anyway.
It’s not the kind of film I’m likely to watch again in a few years (not that I do that much anyway!) nor one I’ll necessarily remember in future. But the issues related to the importance of family connections lifted it a little above the average, and it made a very enjoyable evening’s viewing.
Review copyright 2017 Sue's DVD Reviews
My husband saw this film - or part of it - on a flight, and liked it so much that he put it on his wish-list. He received it a while ago as a gift, and we finally sat down to watch it. I wasn’t particularly inspired by the blurb on the back, explaining that a retired man got a job as an intern. But it turned out to be an excellent film and I’m glad I was persuaded to see it.
70-year-old Ben is the star of this film. Robert de Niro is perfect for the role, as an understated, likeable and hard-working guy. Ben has recently been widowed, and is finding time rather drags in his retirement. He is somewhat old-fashioned, and likes to have a routine for each day, but he misses the buzz of being at work. So when he sees an advert for a ‘senior’ aged intern at a clothes company, he decides to apply.
The first scenes are cleverly done. We learn a great deal about Ben as he prepares his resume - on video camera, not on paper. Unsurprisingly he is accepted for the job, and is put to work with the work-obsessed Jules Oston, the founder of the company. It’s an ideal part for Anne Hathaway, featuring a young, idealistic and driven woman who has quite a heart hidden beneath her high-flying exterior.
The story is character-based, with Ben as catalyst for a lot of changes to different people. He is a secure, confident person who is good at spotting when things need to be done. Perhaps he’s a tad too good to be true, but it didn’t matter. I found myself warming to him more and more. I couldn’t quite forget that Jules was Anne Hathaway; she does the ‘gradually transformed strong young woman’ role very well, but it would be nice to see her in something different. However, I can’t think of anyone who would have been more suited to the role of Jules.
There’s a surprising amount of humour in the film, some of it rather suggestive. The PG-13 or 12A rating is appropriate, although younger children would probably miss most of it; there’s nothing explicit. There's no violence either, though there's some mild (and very well done) slapstick. I particularly enjoyed the excellently choreographed burglary scene later in the story.
The scenery is excellent, the houses different in their layouts, but all welcoming and pleasant to the eye. One of the extras explains that the set designer and director were very picky about this kind of thing - and it certainly works well. There’s minimal bad language, no nudity, no violence… and a satisfying ending in all respects.
Thoroughly enjoyable to watch, and one that I expect to see more than once.
Review copyright 2017 Sue's DVD Reviews
