So there we were. Two Trashionistas, forced to spend our Friday night watching Cameron Diaz mince around in Jimmy Choos. The things we do in the name of research! We'd been looking forward to In Her Shoes for ages. Since the last decent chick lit movie adaptation was (arguably) Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, this film had (excuse the pun) big shoes to fill.
One of us had read Jennifer Weiner's hefty novel, the other hadn't (though I think it's safe to say she's probably at least halfway through by now). We loved the book... but would the film live up to it?
The first thing we noticed about this film was that, unlike many 'based on the novel by...' movies, this one stuck fairly close to the book. In fact it's a testament to Weiner's writing that much of the dialog was lifted almost directly from the novel. Funny moments that had everyone laughing had me turning to Trashionista number two to whisper "that's in the book!"
That said, In Her Shoes is a very long book, and though the film was over two hours in length, a lot of stuff was cut. The big shame was the complete omission of Maggie's (Cameron Diaz) time spent at Princeton 'pretending' to be a student there. This was one of my (and many other people's) favourite sections. However, they needed to get to Florida to introduce the character of Ella (Shirley MacLaine), the girls' grandmother as soon as possible, so Princeton was sacrificed!
The bits of the novel that did change (the name and sex of the dog, some elements of Rose and Simon's relationship, Maggie's job in Florida etc) were done so with good reason. Making Maggie work in the assisted living centre in Florida (instead of a bagel shop) allowed her to be introduced to the ex-professor who encouraged her to read more - thus replacing the role that Princeton played in the book.
I wasn't sure on the casting at first. Cameron Diaz made Maggie more giggly and 'little girl lost' than she appears in the book (a little grating at times), and let's face it, Toni Colette is fabulous, but she's also too thin (even with her weight gain) and too pretty to really be Rose, but both managed to make the characters their own by the end. I thought Mark Feuerstein was too attractive to play Simon (who in the book is plain, short and has bad curly hair) but this is Hollywood, and everyone is more beautiful in films. He did a great job of bringing across Simon's charisma (and persistence) and it was easy to see why Rose would fall for him.
All in all, the film stays close enough to the book to please devoted fans, but it has been given that typical Hollywood gloss. It's long, mushy and obviously aimed directly at a female audience. This is one to go and see with your girlfriends, not your man!
