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Missing fat factor is a bad fit for 'In Her Shoes'

Curtis Hanson's film version of Jennifer Weiner's best-selling novel In Her Shoes is pretty good. But it would've been a lot better if Toni Collette was fat.

I don't mean the real-life Toni Collette, but Collette as Rose Feller, the prim older sister in a family emotionally wrecked by the guilt and regret surrounding the early death of their mother.

20th Century Fox 'In Her Shoes' The verdict: The movie tries, but doesn't quite fit. 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 [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Rose is supposed to be a heavyset Philadelphia lawyer who can't spend her way to self-esteem because she simply can't find any fancy clothes in her size. So instead, she amasses a stunning collection of pricey footwear, whose sensual satin strappiness and stiletto sultriness remain in her closet shrine, because she doesn't feel their fabulousness suits her.

And when her boozy, jobless, hottie sister Maggie (Cameron Diaz) pilfers those shoes and even destroys them, it wounds Rose because it's stealing what Rose considers to be her only worth, a worth that trampy Maggie hasn't earned.

Those shoes are a crucial key to Maggie and Rose's relationship, and what gives the title its double meaning. And for that to work in the movie, Rose would have to A) demonstrate just how much her self-esteem hangs on those Jimmy Choos and B) actually be heavy, not "larger-than-size 4" Hollywood heavy.

Newsflash to Hanson and screenwriter Susannah Grant: No matter how sallow-skinned and lanky-haired you've made Collette, no matter that she gained some 20 pounds for the role, she's still only, what, a size 12?

That might seem ginormous in a world where Cameron Diaz is the norm. Surprise! A 12 is quite average among real people who don't have personal trainers, and it's a size in which Rose could easily Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren herself all the way to China and back.

So, the shoes-as-self-worth theory doesn't make any sense. And there's no evidence of what they mean to her except for one little speech to Maggie that sounds silly and false coming out of Collette's size 12 mouth.

Where's the shopping spree? Where's the Sarah McLachlan musical montage of Rose sitting in her closet wallowing in the fruits of her success that she can't bring herself to use?

I'll tell you where they are — not here. And neither is this movie.

So, how can I say that In Her Shoes was still pretty good? Because of the expertly funny and fierce presence of Shirley MacLaine, who plays stoic Delray Beach retiree Ella Hirsch. She's the sisters' long-lost grandmother, and the key to the unspoken pain that's made Rose a seething martyr and made Maggie a horribly selfish and lost woman-child.

Nobody, but nobody, does silent anger and regret like Shirley MacLaine — she patented that act in Terms of Endearment, and though she could probably do this stuff in her sleep, she doesn't.

When Ella finally opens up about her daughter's death or allows herself to be vulnerable to the children she left behind, it feels deep and fresh and painful.

Collette's wonderful as well, and Diaz is better than I've seen her, although I was a little distracted by the fact that Maggie's supposed to be 28, when Diaz looks every bit of her real-life 33. Those five years make a difference with a character who's already 10 years too old to be pulling the foolishness she does.

I know you're supposed to suspend disbelief, but in a movie that already asks you to overlook so much, I don't think I had anything left to give.

The Flick Chick's Bottom Line: In Her Shoes tries, but doesn't quite fit.