In Her Shoes

Appropriately, the film opens with a shot of a pair of black Jimmy Choo stilettos, worn by Cameron Diaz. Soon, we realise she is about to have sex in a confined space - an elevator perhaps? Oh, it's....a toilet stall and sadly not the kind they have at Soho House, or the Ritz. Moments later, she slips on the tiles and promptly vomits into the pan, while her potential conquest becomes increasingly turned off. He does, however, ring sister Rose (Toni Collette) to come and retrieve her drink-sodden sibling from what turns out to be a high school reunion. Eeek! Is this to be yet another film warning helpless females of the dangers of binge drinking and sex in places with slippery floors? Well, not exactly.

Ne'er do well Maggie Feller (Diaz) has finally been ejected from her parents' house and is forced to crash on her sister's couch. Rose, a successful lawyer, tries desperately to motivate her to get off the couch and find a job. While Maggie excels at wearing clothes and make-up, she has yet to overcome her learning disabilities with regard to reading and arithmetic, disabilities that have prevented her from holding down a job for more than a couple of weeks. In turn, Rose has almost no life outside of work and a closet full of fanciful shoes she never wears, as she utters the eternal refrain of the woman who struggles with her weight and is unhappy with her appearance: "Clothes never look any good; shoes always fit."

Maggie briefly finds employment at a posh pet salon, a job she packs in when she "borrows" one of the dogs after a lousy day. When Rose comes home to find Maggie in bed with her current lover and work colleague, the inevitable split occurs. Rose insults Maggie's intelligence and Maggie insults Rose's appearance and Rose kicks Maggie out of the apartment and Maggie ends up at the train station.

In a previous visit to her parents' house, Maggie had discovered a cache of unopened birthday cards from her maternal grandparents, who had fallen out with her father after her mother's death. Spotting a Florida address, she heads off to a retirement community outside Miami to seek out her grandmother Ella (Shirley Maclaine).

Back in Philadelphia, Rose attempts to get on with her life. As Maggie had not yet returned the "borrowed" dog, Rose ends up doing so, but not before she decides to take a leave of absence from work, in order to become a dog walker to the city's elite, which is just an excuse for her to appear to lose weight and become less stressed. It is at this point that she bumps into another lawyer, called Simon. He insists on taking her for sushi, where he orders in the most expert way, and after discussing the pleasures of wood pigeon and foie gras, tells her, "You'll want to eat with me for the rest of your life." I know I would.

Simon and Rose soon become engaged. While his parents are gracious and congratulatory, Rose's are less so. Cue the hideous bridal shower, where Rose's stepmonster, the improbably named Sydelle, engages in a cheesy slide show, complete with humiliating teen photos, accompanied by digs about Rose's weight. It's one of the moments in the film that rings eerily and horribly true. Forget the fairy tale echoes, this scene is far more reminiscent of the dark undertones of Muriel's Wedding.

I say this because something very similar occurred at my cousin's wedding. My parents and I and my aunt - the mother of the bride - sat silently appalled as the bride's brother proceeded to give a speech, in which he portrayed his sister's weight loss as her greatest achievement in life, ignoring her successful career as a teacher, or the interesting story of how she met her future husband, while at teacher training college in Australia, despite having grown up in towns just next door to each other in Canada. In the film, Rose actually brandishes a kitchen knife at Sydelle. I wish I'd had one handy at the time.

Meanwhile, back at the retirement village, Maggie basks in the admiration of the wrinkly gentlemen, as she suns herself by the pool and grudgingly gets to know Ella. It is during this period that much of the details regarding the death of Maggie's mother emerges, as well the degree to which all involved had been deeply scarred. This acts as a counterpoint to much of the gentle humour that punctuates daily life in Florida. For example, in an attempt to draw Maggie out, Ella gets cable and invites some of her friends over for Sex And The City and Cosmopolitans. This scene is particularly funny, mainly because it is so spot on, despite the fact that my own granny would probably have had an attack of the vapours if subjected to Carrie and the girls' sexcapades.

It is Ella who finally motivates Maggie to get a job at the assisted living centre by promising to match her salary. This, of course, gradually transforms the immature cipher into a helpful, caring person and she eventually starts her own personal shopping business, catering exclusively to the retired ladies. Eager to resolve the sisterly split, Ella invites Rose to Florida and (sigh!) they reconcile in time for the wedding. Fade to pink...

Diaz spends three quarters of the movie playing a fetching game of "Annie get your clothes on." Her bikini is smaller than Ursula Andress's in Dr No, so enjoy her now because, as Rose points out, she "won't always look this way." While Rose pads around her apartment in a linen tunic the Ayatollah might find unfashionable, she is eventually transformed by elegant Fifties silhouette dresses. At first, Maggie prances straight out of the pages of a lad's mag, at one point wearing bikini briefs, a cowboy shirt and a killer pair of open-toed stiletto boots. Later, she adopts more modest outfits in deference to her growing maturity.

In Her Shoes is surprisingly complex for a mainstream chick flick and even the title's metaphor is not worn out by the end. The darker moments are more akin to Todd Solondz's suburban gothic and its ending is surprisingly moving, underscored by the words of e e cummings.

The film manages to cram romance, sex, shopping and eating into one story. What more could one ask for?