Talk about "In Her Shoes" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
Based on the novel by Jennifer Weiner, In Her Shoes is about Rose and Maggie Feller (Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz) who are sisters and complete opposites. Rose is a frumpy, bookish lawyer, while Maggie is unpredictable, promiscuous, and jobless. Maggie's wayward manners and habits seem to repeat a cycle of driving Rose slowly insane over and over again, but Rose continually puts up with it because Maggie is her sister.
When Maggie sleeps with Rose's boyfriend, Rose kicks Maggie out of her apartment and their relationship is damaged. It is difficult to tell whether or not they will ever be close again. Throughout the duration of the film the audience embarks on the emotional rollercoaster of the lives of Rose and Maggie and the people they interact with. The question in the end is whether or not sisterly love can survive a barrage of tumultuous situations and the discovery of new things about the family they share.
Review
The sisters Rose and Maggie are meant to be opposites of one another, and yes, they do seem to be quite the opposite of one another, but they are complete stereotypes as well. Instead of having personalities like real people, Rose and Maggie are the molds that real humans try to break out of. Maggie is the blonde bombshell; she flaunts her beauty, overdoes her makeup, and has sex with random men. Rose is the frumpy brunette; she's dedicated to her job, wears glasses, and is unhappy with her life.
This is not only a dissatisfying film, as all chick-flicks are, but it's also a dissatisfying chick-flick because the characters are impossible to relate to. Maggie is supposed to be a charmingly stupid and whimsical woman, but at the same time she betrays her sister and is incredibly childish. In the end of the film, Maggie is supposed to be viewed as loveable but troublesome, and instead she comes off as a floozy with no regard to how her actions affect other people, and that's what she is.
Rose, on the other hand is supposed to be someone we feel sorry for because she is dissatisfied with her life and her job, and her sister is constantly dragging problems upon her. Rose is pathetic. She lets people walk all over her, and she doesn't take control of her own life. Even at the end of the film when everyone's supposed to have grown from the experience and etc, Rose is still pathetic, and Maggie is still a whore.
One great downfall of this film is that there really isn't much of a plot. Maggie and Rose get in a fight, Maggie and Rose make-up. This type of film isn't really supposed to have a plot though, and that's what makes it successful. This is qualified as a Drama/Comedy meaning that it doesn't have a specific plotline or significant settings or anything that a good film would have, this film is supposed to have characters and depth, but the great downfall of that is that the characters in this film are unbelievably shallow.
Conclusion
I'm sure there are old women everywhere who thrive on the emotions and drama of other people's lives and will love this film, but I hated it. I found it almost insulting that Rose and Maggie were such perfect portrayals of the stereotypes of society that so many people strive to break free of. It is impossible to free yourself of a stereotype if the media and the society around you are embracing it in every direction. Neither Rose nor Maggie was a likable character, and that is why I had the hardest problem watching this film. Rose completely abandons her career as a lawyer for a career as a dog-walker (my question is how could she still afford that nice apartment?) simply because there was a slight complication that she couldn't face, and Maggie runs away to
Florida to escape her problems rather than attempt to solve them. Somehow, in spite of the fact that neither Rose nor Maggie made any attempt to resolve the things that they felt were wrong in their lives, everything ended up perfect and happy in the end because it's Hollywood, and that makes me sick.
