I haven’t seen the 2005 dramedy In Her Shoes since it was new — almost 20 years ago, sheesh! — but I was reminded how much I loved it back then when I was rooting around for similar-ish movies to recommend to accompany my review of actor-turned-director Katie Holmes’s latest, Rare Objects. Both movies are about, among other things, the healing power of female friendship… and in the case of In Her Shoes, the female friends are also sisters with very different approaches to life who find a middle ground between their extremes. (Good movies about the complexities and joys of sibling relationships are few and far between, too.) From my 2005 review:
So few movies are actually “grownup” — not in the boring traditional sense of getting shackled to a mortgage and a corporate job that sucks away your soul because that’s what you’re “supposed” to do, but in the sense of living life to the fullest while also being responsible for your own self and not expecting others to take care of you but knowing it’s a great thing to find someone with whom you can have a reciprocal taking-care-of relationship, whether that’s with a friend or a spouse or a sibling.
Good stuff, plus the sisters are played by the goddess Toni Collette and the bombshell Cameron Diaz… and this is the first movie that truly impressed upon me that the latter is a genuine talent, not just a pretty face and long legs. Must. Watch. Again. Soon.
US: stream on Hulu; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Disney+; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See In Her Shoes at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
