In her Shoes (Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette)

(Amazon UK link)

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