In her shoes

When you see the trailers, it looks like any other 'chick flick' is what one of the reviewer wrote about this movie. (btw, this word 'chick flick' troubles me a lot, I mean any women-oriented movie is called a 'chick flick', what's with that.. then what should we call all those mindless action-packed, gruesome murders and senseless violence displaying movies..? 'leave-your-brains-at-home flick'??) yeah rite!!

Anyways I saw this movie because I wanted to see Toni Collette, her last movie I saw was 'About a boy', which was again an awesome movie. I really wasn't keen to see Cameron Diaz, coz I thought, she might just be a glamor quotient in the movie. Well, wasn't I in for a surprise!!

The story is about 2 sisters, Maggie Feller(Cameron Diaz) and Rose Feller(Toni Collette) who lose their mother at a young age. Maggie is the typical dumb blond who is always drinking, partying and sleeping around with guys all the time anywhere and everywhere. She stays with her father, who lives with his new wife Syndelle. Syndelle is again the typical stepmother who cannot see anything more spectacular than her daughter who she keeps referring to as 'My Marsha'(maybe a cue from the character 'Marcia' in Brady Bunch??)
Maggie comes home one night quite late and drunk. Using this as an excuse, Syndelle kicks her out of home. So Maggie moves in with her sister Rose. Rose, who is a successful lawyer, uses her job as an mask to cover all her insecurities of being over-weight, not having many guys falling for her and that of not being quite stylish nor fashionable. She also has a great collection of stylish and expensive shoes which she never wears but has a cupboard full of it.

The story then moves ahead with the sisters having a fallout and finding out about their grandmother, Ella (Shirley MacLaine) who they think is dead. Shirley MacLaine is simply outstanding in her role of a non-emotional lady, coping with the sudden arrival of family once again in her life. All the three ladies cope with the lose of their loved one, the girl's mother and Ella's daughter.

Maggie who has dyslexia takes up a job as a helper in a hospital and finds a blind old man, a retired professor. He asks her to read to him which she refuses. But he doesn't give up on her and patiently makes her read the book. She discovers her true talent of being a good fashion stylist for people.

Rose quits her high-profile job and takes up on dog-walking to find the simple intricacies of life. Betrayed and having lost all hope, she finds herself in love again from someone she least expected and finally decides to wear her shoes.

Ella realizes that life has given her a second chance. She overcomes her guilt of having abandoned her granddaughters. She begins to embrace life with a new found love and taking part actively in the girls' well being.

The last part of the movie shows Rose getting married. Maggie asks her sister to let her pick out the dress as she would know what suits her best.

Why I liked the movie? Well, because it was honest and brutal to some extent. There are certain things in life that does not fade with time - Your responsibilities, your fears, your inabilities. You may go on in life, but these things if not dealt with comes back haunting you. This movie also speaks about how important being honest to oneself is... So this is again a must watch...