All Good Things Must End…

In Her Shoes is not your everyday chick flick, it is something much more. It is a great piece of movie making that allows you to view the destruction of several generations of a family due to mental illness and family secrets.

The cast was top notch, Shirley McClaine and the community of retired women steal many scenes from Cameron Diaz. Toni Collette turns in another fantastic performance, showing once again that she is one of the premiere actors of her generation with as much range as can be had in Hollywood. Ken Howard plays their loving father who has secrets of his own. All in all great actors with a fantastic screenplay, it shows that Hollywood NEVER knows just what they have and as such this movie was incorrectly marketed and did horrible at the box office. It deserved better.

I know the movie has been out for a while, but I did not see it till this past weekend. I heard the awful reviews it got (Joel Siegal walked out of it) and, although I never trust most corporate reviews) I thought why waste time with a sequel to a movie that did not need one. I think that sequels and remakes are the lazy and cynical way to make a movie. No new creative thought is there and it is just an easy buck for the studio-and it shows. Most movies today are not worth the time to see them. I am not entertained by a depressed superhero. Special effects do nothing for me, same with CGI. I like dialogue and a story. That is why I like Kevin Smith and his films.

Rebounding from the ass-kicking he got (unfairly I might add) from Jersey Girl, this is a great movie. It is Kevin Smith true to form, a racy dialogue and in-joke filled fest that is enjoyable. Even the Donkey scene is funny for those without a closed mind. Rosario Dawson is excellent-as is the rest of the cast. There is a kindness that exists in Kevin Smith’s films that is hard to explain. People care for each other- even the drug dealers Jay and Silent Bob. There are few hateful characters, but those tend to get lost amongst the bonds of true kindness. It is a rare gift to be able to show this on screen and it is refreshing to see.