"In Her Shoes" 2005

“In Her Shoes”

Maggie Feller: Shoes like these should not be locked in a closet! They should be living a life of scandal, and passion and getting screwed in an alleyway by a billionaire while his frigid wife waits in the limo thinking that he just went back into the bar to get his cellphone. These are cute too.
Rose Feller: Please tell me you just made that up.
Maggie Feller: Look, if you're not going to wear them... don't buy them! Leave them for someone who's going to get something out of them.
Rose Feller: I get something out of them! When I feel bad I like to treat myself. Clothes never look any good... food just makes me fatter... shoes always fit.

Jennifer Weiner is one of my favorite authors. She gets dumped under the pervasive chick lit label but really rises above it. Her characters are always complicated and sarcastic. They don’t fit into the stereotypes that the world wants to put them in.

I am thinking a lot about how adaptations are successful. Over the last two weekends, I have seen “The Help” and “One Day”. Both are adaptations of pretty popular books. For the most part they were good adaptations. I have found that the length of time between reading the book and seeing the movie makes a big difference on how much I enjoy an adaptation. The prime gap for me seems to be about six months. It is long enough that I remember the high points but the minute details are lost. If the filmmakers have done their job, the high points are in the movie.

I got “In Her Shoes” to take on a vacation. It was my plane book. I usually end up reading four or five books while on vacation. I have a hard time sleeping in on vacation, my husband loves to sleep late so I am usually by a window reading. I read “In Her Shoes” twice while on that vacation. I went through the book in a fever, desperate to know what happens next. Then I read it for the nuance and to enjoy the subtleties that Jennifer Weiner infuses into her stories.

I have already voiced my love of Toni Collette, who plays Rose. She is opposite Cameron Diaz as Maggie, the more vulnerable sister. Toni Collette was perfect as a woman who has been trying to take care of her little sister. She has spent her life trying to be the “good” sister. Make good grades, be good at her job, and not cause any trouble.

Cameron wasn’t quite as successful. Maggie in the book was vulnerable. She used outrageous behavior to hide her fears. Cameron’s Maggie just seemed spoiled.

This movie also has one of my favorite’s, the great Shirley MacLaine. She plays a grandmother with her own baggage. She is desperate too. She wants to risk her heart to these girls but worries that they’ll be taken away from her again.

I went to this movie alone on opening weekend. I ended up going again a couple of weeks later with a friend. It does hit the high points. There are a few good moments that aren’t in the book as well. I wanted Rose to be a little heavier, as she was in the book. I wanted Maggie to be more real than Cameron Diaz could pull off. But the romances are nice, the supporting cast was pretty good and it ends happily.

I got to meet Jennifer Weiner at a book signing a few years ago. She was funny and approachable and wished my luck on my own writing. She couldn’t have been nicer. I was well back in the line of admirers yet she made me feel like I was the only one in the room. I have met authors before and since that didn’t do that. It changes how I read their books.

Overall this is a successful adaptation in my mind. It makes me want to see it again, read the book again and hope for a sequel someday to find out what happened to Rose and Maggie.