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'In Her Shoes': Good performances, second-rate material

Cameron Diaz does ditzy about as well as such great screen ditzes as Goldie Hawn and Judy Holliday.

So naturally she wants to do a dramatic role. She gets her chance with "In Her Shoes," a sister-act movie directed by no less a talent than Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential," "Wonder Boys").

20th Century Fox 'In Her Shoes' C The verdict: A sort of beach-read movie for the "Beaches" crowd. Director: Curtis Hanson Starring: Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Feuerstein, Brooke Smith Run time: 130 minutes Release date: Oct. 7, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for thematic material, language and some sexual content. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'In Her Shoes'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

The film is based on Jennifer Weiner's best-seller about two siblings, one responsible and "plain," the other gorgeous and fluff-headed (guess which one Diaz plays?). Rose (Toni Collette) isn't so much unattractive as a workaholic and slightly overweight. True, she has a pretty poor sexual self-image, but with a sister like Maggie (Diaz), who could blame her?

Even so, Rose isn't totally envious of her sister. As she points out, Maggie has no useful skills whatsoever. "What's she good at?" she asks when the matter of a job comes up. "Getting someone to buy her a drink at bars?"

Well, as some of us know, that can be plenty useful, but that's not the direction this story takes.

Anyway, the two have a falling out and Rose kicks Maggie out.

Maggie has no place to go until she stumbles on a long-lost grandmother they'd been told was dead by their apparently clueless father (Ken Howard) and much-loathed stepmother (Candice Azzara). So Maggie heads to a sunny condo in Florida to reunite with Ella (Shirley MacLaine). However, Ella is no senile little old lady. She's soon on to her prodigal granddaughter and initiates some much-needed changes.

If only someone had given Ella a whack at this script. Are we truly to believe Maggie has made it to almost 30 with no income, not a stick of furniture and a severe case of dyslexia that nobody in her obviously well-off and intelligent family noticed? (In one, um, heartbreaking scene, she flunks her audition for MTV because — sniff — she can't even read the monitor.) Or that a stressed-out lawyer like Rose would quit her job to become a dog walker (yeah, I know it's a movie, but did it have to be this cutesy and contrived?). And remind me again, why exactly are we supposed to like Maggie, aside from the fact she's played by Diaz?

Finally, why do these sisters eventually kiss and make up?

Oh, right, because the movie's already over two hours long and that's how sisterly chick flicks are supposed to end.

Uh-oh. I said chick flick. According to Hanson, his stars, the writer and the best boy, the absolutely, positively last thing "In Her Shoes" is is a chick flick. OK. And it's not a Western, either.

The fault, I think, lies not with the movie itself so much as its source. Weiner is an enormously popular novelist. You can see that some of the stuff on the screen might have actually worked in print, especially for a certain audience. But so much more is gooey and lazy and just not especially smart.

That said, "In Her Shoes" is exactly the movie some movie-lovers have been waiting for in a fall where women are either dead ("Tim Burton's Corpse Bride") or running around an airplane like an action hero ("Flightplan") or are Jessica Alba underwater ("Into the Blue").

Further, the performances are good — especially MacLaine, who knows this isn't first-rate material but still gives it her considerable best as a woman who's anything but "Golden Girl"-ready.

Collette, as usual, is steady as she goes, though by now she can do the "ugly duckling" bit in her sleep. She balances Rose's resentfulness with a genuine affection for Maggie. And even a kind of empathy. She knows that hotties have a notoriously short shelf life. As she says, "Nobody likes a middle-aged tramp."

As for Diaz, well, she's no Charlize Theron, another beauty who famously showed her Oscar-winning acting chops in "Monster" and will again later this month in the exceptional "North Country." But she's certainly not bad, either, and keep in mind, she's been handed a pretty incoherent character. Of course, Diaz is utterly convincing as a woman who can fill an entire morning trying on her sister's shoes, but she's also credible as someone capable of change. And nobody can carry off a butt shot — and there are many — like Cameron Diaz.

See, it's really not a chick flick...