While she is mostly known for her award-winning tenure in Once Upon A Time, the best Lana Parrilla movies and TV shows reveal an incredibly wide range that suits a whole host of genres. Born in New York in 1977, Lana Parrilla studied acting at LA's Beverly Hills Playhouse, following in the footsteps of her aunt, character actress Candice Azzara (who appeared in the likes of Caroline in the City and Who's the Boss?). Parrilla's career began in 1999 with movies like Very Mean Men and Spiders and the Upn sitcom Grown Ups.
However, while her earlier roles on the big screen didn't kick-start a prominent career in movies, she had a big break when it came to TV shows when she signed on to ABC's celebrated sitcom Spin City in 2000. From there she went on to appear in several short-lived shows, though despite having a run of less-than-stellar luck when it...
However, while her earlier roles on the big screen didn't kick-start a prominent career in movies, she had a big break when it came to TV shows when she signed on to ABC's celebrated sitcom Spin City in 2000. From there she went on to appear in several short-lived shows, though despite having a run of less-than-stellar luck when it...
- 10/22/2024
- by Tom Russell
- ScreenRant
Before "All in the Family" became one of the most groundbreaking sitcoms of all time, it was a non-starter with two failed pilot episodes and counting. The first, titled "Justice For All," was taped 3 years before the original show's run and featured a cast including Carol O'Conner and Jean Stapleton, who would go on to play married couple Archie and Edith Bunker in the final version of the show. The actors playing the Bunker family's daughter Edith and son-in-law Michael were different, though, played by Kelly Jean Peters ("Cagney & Lacey") and Tim McIntire ("Soap"), whose character was initially named Richard.
O'Conner explained in his memoir "I Think I'm Outta Here" that he largely rewrote the original pilot script himself, and the pilot was recorded in New York in October 1968. According to a Time Magazine 50th anniversary retrospective by Daniel S. Levy, network execs weren't pleased with the casting choices for...
O'Conner explained in his memoir "I Think I'm Outta Here" that he largely rewrote the original pilot script himself, and the pilot was recorded in New York in October 1968. According to a Time Magazine 50th anniversary retrospective by Daniel S. Levy, network execs weren't pleased with the casting choices for...
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- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
'Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?' with Dustin Hoffman. Long-titled movie 'Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?': Messy filmmaking with one single bright spot To call Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? a curiosity is to perhaps infer quality buried in its quirk, or virtue obscured by its capriciousness. That's not the case, really, as this largely existential film is an absolute mess with only one bright spot of redemption (more on her later). Directed by Ulu Grosbard, Who Is Harry Kellerman… – with its long-winded, desperate title – is a curiosity along the lines of a relic, a work that somehow speaks of its time. Unfortunately, it really does not speak coherently, even if the film is unmistakably post-Woodstock, pre-Watergate, and all-American, with errant themes of success,...
- 9/8/2015
- by Doug Johnson
- Alt Film Guide
Omar Sharif in 'Doctor Zhivago.' Egyptian star Omar Sharif, 'The Karate Kid' producer Jerry Weintraub: Brief career recaps A little late in the game – and following the longish Theodore Bikel article posted yesterday – below are brief career recaps of a couple of film veterans who died in July 2015: actor Omar Sharif and producer Jerry Weintraub. A follow-up post will offer an overview of the career of peplum (sword-and-sandal movie) actor Jacques Sernas, whose passing earlier this month has been all but ignored by the myopic English-language media. Omar Sharif: Film career beginnings in North Africa The death of Egyptian film actor Omar Sharif at age 83 following a heart attack on July 10 would have been ignored by the English-language media (especially in the U.S.) as well had Sharif remained a star within the Arabic-speaking world. After all, an "international" star is only worth remembering...
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- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Glenda Jackson: Actress and former Labour MP. Two-time Oscar winner and former Labour MP Glenda Jackson returns to acting Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson set aside her acting career after becoming a Labour Party MP in 1992. Four years ago, Jackson, who represented the Greater London constituency of Hampstead and Highgate, announced that she would stand down the 2015 general election – which, somewhat controversially, was won by right-wing prime minister David Cameron's Conservative party.[1] The silver lining: following a two-decade-plus break, Glenda Jackson is returning to acting. Now, Jackson isn't – for the time being – returning to acting in front of the camera. The 79-year-old is to be featured in the Radio 4 series Emile Zola: Blood, Sex and Money, described on their website as a “mash-up” adaptation of 20 Emile Zola novels collectively known as "Les Rougon-Macquart."[2] Part 1 of the three-part Radio 4 series will be broadcast daily during an...
- 7/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In Her Shoes
This review was written for the festival screening of "In Her Shoes".
TORONTO -- In "In her Shoes", director Curtis Hanson has made a chick flick with substance as well as style. With Cameron Diaz and the ever-versatile Tony Collette playing a pair of squabbling Jewish sisters, Hanson gets inside his characters' scrambled lives with sensitivity and compassion as he explores the ties that forever bind.
The drama has a sitcom feel so it takes awhile to see where Hanson and writer Susannah Grant (working from Jennifer Weiner's novel) are headed. One may also not buy a key plot twist -- that the two women are totally ignorant of the existence of a grandmother, played by Shirley MacLaine -- but this doesn't hinder the enjoyment of watching the interaction of the three stars.
The audience for "In Her Shoes" definitely skewers female. But Fox can count on Diaz to attract male viewers, who won't be disappointed by the sexy and stylish outfits her character, a clothes maven, wears in the picture. Boxoffice outlook is above average.
The two sisters are designed as polar opposites. Diaz's Maggie is wild, irresponsible, ill-educated and much too reliant on sexual magnetism to draw the affection she craves. Collette's Rose is a ambitious attorney in a top Philadelphia law firm whose work schedule and body issues preclude any love life.
Maggie's inability to hold down a job leaves her virtually homeless. She camps out on couches at friends' or the home of her father (Ken Howard) and bitterly resentful stepmother (Candice Azzara) or, as a last resort, her sister's. When Maggie does the unthinkable and beds a man her sister just started seeing, Rose orders Maggie out of her life for good. For once, Maggie obeys.
At this point, the movie springs the surprise of the long-lost grandmother. Maggie happens upon a stack of unopened birthday greetings to both sisters from the grandmother, which their dad hid from them all these years. So Maggie takes a train to Florida in hopes of caging a couch and possibly some money from Grandma.
Meanwhile, Rose is sufficiently upset about the direction of her life to quit the firm and create a job for herself as a dog walker while she thinks things over. During her "walkabout," she runs into a former colleague and gourmet named Simon (Mark Feuerstein), who takes her to lunch and won't take no for an answer to a follow-up dinner.
Turns out, Simon had the hots for Rose from day one at the firm. Surprised and delighted to find herself with a real boyfriend, Rose begins to lose weight and repair her self-esteem.
Maggie's grandmother, Ella, sizes up Maggie quickly enough and puts her to work at an assisted-living home. There a patient, a retired professor, gets to the bottom of Maggie's problem. Severe dyslexia has hindered her ability to learn or hold a job.
He works with her on the problem. In the meantime, at the lively senior citizen center where Maggie lives with Ella, Maggie starts to shake off her self-absorption and reach out to other people.
When Ella discovers Rose's address, she writes her other granddaughter a letter that will bring about a reunion that may or may not be pleasant. The issue that looms over all three characters turns out to be how the girls' mother died.
The story suffers from a certain tidiness, where many characters exist to teach each sister a life lesson and solutions come far too easily. But the actors are all on their game, especially the three stars, and Hanson never lets the movie bog down in sentimentality.
Diaz gives Maggie a genuine sweetness even at her wildest that makes her loneliness all the more acute. Collette demonstrates how braininess can cover up a person's complete ignorance of her own real worth. MacLaine, in one of her more restrained performances, brings to Ella the wisdom it took a lifetime of mistakes to acquire.
Technical work is thoroughly pro in Philadelphia and Florida, two areas of the country that look as dissimilar as the two sisters.
IN HER SHOES
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000/Scott Free/Deuce Three Productions
Credits:
Director: Curtis Hanson
Writer: Susannah Grant
Based on the novel by: Jennifer Weiner
Producers: Ridley Scott, Lisa Ellzey, Curtis Hanson, Carol Fenelon
Executive producer: Tony Scott
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Dan Davis
Costumes: Sophie de Rakoff
Music: Mark Isham
Editors: Craig Kitson, Lisa Zeno Churgin
Cast:
Maggie: Cameron Diaz
Rose: Tony Collette
Ella: Shirley MacLaine
Simon: Mark Feuerstein
Michael Feller: Ken Howard
Sydelle: Candice Azzara
Mrs. Lefkowitz: Francine Bears
Running time -- 131 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
TORONTO -- In "In her Shoes", director Curtis Hanson has made a chick flick with substance as well as style. With Cameron Diaz and the ever-versatile Tony Collette playing a pair of squabbling Jewish sisters, Hanson gets inside his characters' scrambled lives with sensitivity and compassion as he explores the ties that forever bind.
The drama has a sitcom feel so it takes awhile to see where Hanson and writer Susannah Grant (working from Jennifer Weiner's novel) are headed. One may also not buy a key plot twist -- that the two women are totally ignorant of the existence of a grandmother, played by Shirley MacLaine -- but this doesn't hinder the enjoyment of watching the interaction of the three stars.
The audience for "In Her Shoes" definitely skewers female. But Fox can count on Diaz to attract male viewers, who won't be disappointed by the sexy and stylish outfits her character, a clothes maven, wears in the picture. Boxoffice outlook is above average.
The two sisters are designed as polar opposites. Diaz's Maggie is wild, irresponsible, ill-educated and much too reliant on sexual magnetism to draw the affection she craves. Collette's Rose is a ambitious attorney in a top Philadelphia law firm whose work schedule and body issues preclude any love life.
Maggie's inability to hold down a job leaves her virtually homeless. She camps out on couches at friends' or the home of her father (Ken Howard) and bitterly resentful stepmother (Candice Azzara) or, as a last resort, her sister's. When Maggie does the unthinkable and beds a man her sister just started seeing, Rose orders Maggie out of her life for good. For once, Maggie obeys.
At this point, the movie springs the surprise of the long-lost grandmother. Maggie happens upon a stack of unopened birthday greetings to both sisters from the grandmother, which their dad hid from them all these years. So Maggie takes a train to Florida in hopes of caging a couch and possibly some money from Grandma.
Meanwhile, Rose is sufficiently upset about the direction of her life to quit the firm and create a job for herself as a dog walker while she thinks things over. During her "walkabout," she runs into a former colleague and gourmet named Simon (Mark Feuerstein), who takes her to lunch and won't take no for an answer to a follow-up dinner.
Turns out, Simon had the hots for Rose from day one at the firm. Surprised and delighted to find herself with a real boyfriend, Rose begins to lose weight and repair her self-esteem.
Maggie's grandmother, Ella, sizes up Maggie quickly enough and puts her to work at an assisted-living home. There a patient, a retired professor, gets to the bottom of Maggie's problem. Severe dyslexia has hindered her ability to learn or hold a job.
He works with her on the problem. In the meantime, at the lively senior citizen center where Maggie lives with Ella, Maggie starts to shake off her self-absorption and reach out to other people.
When Ella discovers Rose's address, she writes her other granddaughter a letter that will bring about a reunion that may or may not be pleasant. The issue that looms over all three characters turns out to be how the girls' mother died.
The story suffers from a certain tidiness, where many characters exist to teach each sister a life lesson and solutions come far too easily. But the actors are all on their game, especially the three stars, and Hanson never lets the movie bog down in sentimentality.
Diaz gives Maggie a genuine sweetness even at her wildest that makes her loneliness all the more acute. Collette demonstrates how braininess can cover up a person's complete ignorance of her own real worth. MacLaine, in one of her more restrained performances, brings to Ella the wisdom it took a lifetime of mistakes to acquire.
Technical work is thoroughly pro in Philadelphia and Florida, two areas of the country that look as dissimilar as the two sisters.
IN HER SHOES
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000/Scott Free/Deuce Three Productions
Credits:
Director: Curtis Hanson
Writer: Susannah Grant
Based on the novel by: Jennifer Weiner
Producers: Ridley Scott, Lisa Ellzey, Curtis Hanson, Carol Fenelon
Executive producer: Tony Scott
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Dan Davis
Costumes: Sophie de Rakoff
Music: Mark Isham
Editors: Craig Kitson, Lisa Zeno Churgin
Cast:
Maggie: Cameron Diaz
Rose: Tony Collette
Ella: Shirley MacLaine
Simon: Mark Feuerstein
Michael Feller: Ken Howard
Sydelle: Candice Azzara
Mrs. Lefkowitz: Francine Bears
Running time -- 131 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
- 10/14/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In Her Shoes
TORONTO -- In "In her Shoes", director Curtis Hanson has made a chick flick with substance as well as style. With Cameron Diaz and the ever-versatile Tony Collette playing a pair of squabbling Jewish sisters, Hanson gets inside his characters' scrambled lives with sensitivity and compassion as he explores the ties that forever bind.
The drama has a sitcom feel so it takes awhile to see where Hanson and writer Susannah Grant (working from Jennifer Weiner's novel) are headed. One may also not buy a key plot twist -- that the two women are totally ignorant of the existence of a grandmother, played by Shirley MacLaine -- but this doesn't hinder the enjoyment of watching the interaction of the three stars.
The audience for "In Her Shoes" definitely skewers female. But Fox can count on Diaz to attract male viewers, who won't be disappointed by the sexy and stylish outfits her character, a clothes maven, wears in the picture. Boxoffice outlook is above average.
The two sisters are designed as polar opposites. Diaz's Maggie is wild, irresponsible, ill-educated and much too reliant on sexual magnetism to draw the affection she craves. Collette's Rose is a ambitious attorney in a top Philadelphia law firm whose work schedule and body issues preclude any love life.
Maggie's inability to hold down a job leaves her virtually homeless. She camps out on couches at friends' or the home of her father (Ken Howard) and bitterly resentful stepmother (Candice Azzara) or, as a last resort, her sister's. When Maggie does the unthinkable and beds a man her sister just started seeing, Rose orders Maggie out of her life for good. For once, Maggie obeys.
At this point, the movie springs the surprise of the long-lost grandmother. Maggie happens upon a stack of unopened birthday greetings to both sisters from the grandmother, which their dad hid from them all these years. So Maggie takes a train to Florida in hopes of caging a couch and possibly some money from Grandma.
Meanwhile, Rose is sufficiently upset about the direction of her life to quit the firm and create a job for herself as a dog walker while she thinks things over. During her "walkabout," she runs into a former colleague and gourmet named Simon (Mark Feuerstein), who takes her to lunch and won't take no for an answer to a follow-up dinner.
Turns out, Simon had the hots for Rose from day one at the firm. Surprised and delighted to find herself with a real boyfriend, Rose begins to lose weight and repair her self-esteem.
Maggie's grandmother, Ella, sizes up Maggie quickly enough and puts her to work at an assisted-living home. There a patient, a retired professor, gets to the bottom of Maggie's problem. Severe dyslexia has hindered her ability to learn or hold a job.
He works with her on the problem. In the meantime, at the lively senior citizen center where Maggie lives with Ella, Maggie starts to shake off her self-absorption and reach out to other people.
When Ella discovers Rose's address, she writes her other granddaughter a letter that will bring about a reunion that may or may not be pleasant. The issue that looms over all three characters turns out to be how the girls' mother died.
The story suffers from a certain tidiness, where many characters exist to teach each sister a life lesson and solutions come far too easily. But the actors are all on their game, especially the three stars, and Hanson never lets the movie bog down in sentimentality.
Diaz gives Maggie a genuine sweetness even at her wildest that makes her loneliness all the more acute. Collette demonstrates how braininess can cover up a person's complete ignorance of her own real worth. MacLaine, in one of her more restrained performances, brings to Ella the wisdom it took a lifetime of mistakes to acquire.
Technical work is thoroughly pro in Philadelphia and Florida, two areas of the country that look as dissimilar as the two sisters.
IN HER SHOES
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000/Scott Free/Deuce Three Productions
Credits:
Director: Curtis Hanson
Writer: Susannah Grant
Based on the novel by: Jennifer Weiner
Producers: Ridley Scott, Lisa Ellzey, Curtis Hanson, Carol Fenelon
Executive producer: Tony Scott
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Dan Davis
Costumes: Sophie de Rakoff
Music: Mark Isham
Editors: Craig Kitson, Lisa Zeno Churgin
Cast:
Maggie: Cameron Diaz
Rose: Tony Collette
Ella: Shirley MacLaine
Simon: Mark Feuerstein
Michael Feller: Ken Howard
Sydelle: Candice Azzara
Mrs. Lefkowitz: Francine Bears
Running time -- 131 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
The drama has a sitcom feel so it takes awhile to see where Hanson and writer Susannah Grant (working from Jennifer Weiner's novel) are headed. One may also not buy a key plot twist -- that the two women are totally ignorant of the existence of a grandmother, played by Shirley MacLaine -- but this doesn't hinder the enjoyment of watching the interaction of the three stars.
The audience for "In Her Shoes" definitely skewers female. But Fox can count on Diaz to attract male viewers, who won't be disappointed by the sexy and stylish outfits her character, a clothes maven, wears in the picture. Boxoffice outlook is above average.
The two sisters are designed as polar opposites. Diaz's Maggie is wild, irresponsible, ill-educated and much too reliant on sexual magnetism to draw the affection she craves. Collette's Rose is a ambitious attorney in a top Philadelphia law firm whose work schedule and body issues preclude any love life.
Maggie's inability to hold down a job leaves her virtually homeless. She camps out on couches at friends' or the home of her father (Ken Howard) and bitterly resentful stepmother (Candice Azzara) or, as a last resort, her sister's. When Maggie does the unthinkable and beds a man her sister just started seeing, Rose orders Maggie out of her life for good. For once, Maggie obeys.
At this point, the movie springs the surprise of the long-lost grandmother. Maggie happens upon a stack of unopened birthday greetings to both sisters from the grandmother, which their dad hid from them all these years. So Maggie takes a train to Florida in hopes of caging a couch and possibly some money from Grandma.
Meanwhile, Rose is sufficiently upset about the direction of her life to quit the firm and create a job for herself as a dog walker while she thinks things over. During her "walkabout," she runs into a former colleague and gourmet named Simon (Mark Feuerstein), who takes her to lunch and won't take no for an answer to a follow-up dinner.
Turns out, Simon had the hots for Rose from day one at the firm. Surprised and delighted to find herself with a real boyfriend, Rose begins to lose weight and repair her self-esteem.
Maggie's grandmother, Ella, sizes up Maggie quickly enough and puts her to work at an assisted-living home. There a patient, a retired professor, gets to the bottom of Maggie's problem. Severe dyslexia has hindered her ability to learn or hold a job.
He works with her on the problem. In the meantime, at the lively senior citizen center where Maggie lives with Ella, Maggie starts to shake off her self-absorption and reach out to other people.
When Ella discovers Rose's address, she writes her other granddaughter a letter that will bring about a reunion that may or may not be pleasant. The issue that looms over all three characters turns out to be how the girls' mother died.
The story suffers from a certain tidiness, where many characters exist to teach each sister a life lesson and solutions come far too easily. But the actors are all on their game, especially the three stars, and Hanson never lets the movie bog down in sentimentality.
Diaz gives Maggie a genuine sweetness even at her wildest that makes her loneliness all the more acute. Collette demonstrates how braininess can cover up a person's complete ignorance of her own real worth. MacLaine, in one of her more restrained performances, brings to Ella the wisdom it took a lifetime of mistakes to acquire.
Technical work is thoroughly pro in Philadelphia and Florida, two areas of the country that look as dissimilar as the two sisters.
IN HER SHOES
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000/Scott Free/Deuce Three Productions
Credits:
Director: Curtis Hanson
Writer: Susannah Grant
Based on the novel by: Jennifer Weiner
Producers: Ridley Scott, Lisa Ellzey, Curtis Hanson, Carol Fenelon
Executive producer: Tony Scott
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Dan Davis
Costumes: Sophie de Rakoff
Music: Mark Isham
Editors: Craig Kitson, Lisa Zeno Churgin
Cast:
Maggie: Cameron Diaz
Rose: Tony Collette
Ella: Shirley MacLaine
Simon: Mark Feuerstein
Michael Feller: Ken Howard
Sydelle: Candice Azzara
Mrs. Lefkowitz: Francine Bears
Running time -- 131 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
- 9/16/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In Her Shoes
TORONTO -- In "In her Shoes", director Curtis Hanson has made a chick flick with substance as well as style. With Cameron Diaz and the ever-versatile Tony Collette playing a pair of squabbling Jewish sisters, Hanson gets inside his characters' scrambled lives with sensitivity and compassion as he explores the ties that forever bind.
The drama has a sitcom feel so it takes awhile to see where Hanson and writer Susannah Grant (working from Jennifer Weiner's novel) are headed. One may also not buy a key plot twist -- that the two women are totally ignorant of the existence of a grandmother, played by Shirley MacLaine -- but this doesn't hinder the enjoyment of watching the interaction of the three stars.
The audience for "In Her Shoes" definitely skewers female. But Fox can count on Diaz to attract male viewers, who won't be disappointed by the sexy and stylish outfits her character, a clothes maven, wears in the picture. Boxoffice outlook is above average.
The two sisters are designed as polar opposites. Diaz's Maggie is wild, irresponsible, ill-educated and much too reliant on sexual magnetism to draw the affection she craves. Collette's Rose is a ambitious attorney in a top Philadelphia law firm whose work schedule and body issues preclude any love life.
Maggie's inability to hold down a job leaves her virtually homeless. She camps out on couches at friends' or the home of her father (Ken Howard) and bitterly resentful stepmother (Candice Azzara) or, as a last resort, her sister's. When Maggie does the unthinkable and beds a man her sister just started seeing, Rose orders Maggie out of her life for good. For once, Maggie obeys.
At this point, the movie springs the surprise of the long-lost grandmother. Maggie happens upon a stack of unopened birthday greetings to both sisters from the grandmother, which their dad hid from them all these years. So Maggie takes a train to Florida in hopes of caging a couch and possibly some money from Grandma.
Meanwhile, Rose is sufficiently upset about the direction of her life to quit the firm and create a job for herself as a dog walker while she thinks things over. During her "walkabout," she runs into a former colleague and gourmet named Simon (Mark Feuerstein), who takes her to lunch and won't take no for an answer to a follow-up dinner.
Turns out, Simon had the hots for Rose from day one at the firm. Surprised and delighted to find herself with a real boyfriend, Rose begins to lose weight and repair her self-esteem.
Maggie's grandmother, Ella, sizes up Maggie quickly enough and puts her to work at an assisted-living home. There a patient, a retired professor, gets to the bottom of Maggie's problem. Severe dyslexia has hindered her ability to learn or hold a job.
He works with her on the problem. In the meantime, at the lively senior citizen center where Maggie lives with Ella, Maggie starts to shake off her self-absorption and reach out to other people.
When Ella discovers Rose's address, she writes her other granddaughter a letter that will bring about a reunion that may or may not be pleasant. The issue that looms over all three characters turns out to be how the girls' mother died.
The story suffers from a certain tidiness, where many characters exist to teach each sister a life lesson and solutions come far too easily. But the actors are all on their game, especially the three stars, and Hanson never lets the movie bog down in sentimentality.
Diaz gives Maggie a genuine sweetness even at her wildest that makes her loneliness all the more acute. Collette demonstrates how braininess can cover up a person's complete ignorance of her own real worth. MacLaine, in one of her more restrained performances, brings to Ella the wisdom it took a lifetime of mistakes to acquire.
Technical work is thoroughly pro in Philadelphia and Florida, two areas of the country that look as dissimilar as the two sisters.
IN HER SHOES
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000/Scott Free/Deuce Three Productions
Credits:
Director: Curtis Hanson
Writer: Susannah Grant
Based on the novel by: Jennifer Weiner
Producers: Ridley Scott, Lisa Ellzey, Curtis Hanson, Carol Fenelon
Executive producer: Tony Scott
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Dan Davis
Costumes: Sophie de Rakoff
Music: Mark Isham
Editors: Craig Kitson, Lisa Zeno Churgin
Cast:
Maggie: Cameron Diaz
Rose: Tony Collette
Ella: Shirley MacLaine
Simon: Mark Feuerstein
Michael Feller: Ken Howard
Sydelle: Candice Azzara
Mrs. Lefkowitz: Francine Bears
Running time -- 131 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
The drama has a sitcom feel so it takes awhile to see where Hanson and writer Susannah Grant (working from Jennifer Weiner's novel) are headed. One may also not buy a key plot twist -- that the two women are totally ignorant of the existence of a grandmother, played by Shirley MacLaine -- but this doesn't hinder the enjoyment of watching the interaction of the three stars.
The audience for "In Her Shoes" definitely skewers female. But Fox can count on Diaz to attract male viewers, who won't be disappointed by the sexy and stylish outfits her character, a clothes maven, wears in the picture. Boxoffice outlook is above average.
The two sisters are designed as polar opposites. Diaz's Maggie is wild, irresponsible, ill-educated and much too reliant on sexual magnetism to draw the affection she craves. Collette's Rose is a ambitious attorney in a top Philadelphia law firm whose work schedule and body issues preclude any love life.
Maggie's inability to hold down a job leaves her virtually homeless. She camps out on couches at friends' or the home of her father (Ken Howard) and bitterly resentful stepmother (Candice Azzara) or, as a last resort, her sister's. When Maggie does the unthinkable and beds a man her sister just started seeing, Rose orders Maggie out of her life for good. For once, Maggie obeys.
At this point, the movie springs the surprise of the long-lost grandmother. Maggie happens upon a stack of unopened birthday greetings to both sisters from the grandmother, which their dad hid from them all these years. So Maggie takes a train to Florida in hopes of caging a couch and possibly some money from Grandma.
Meanwhile, Rose is sufficiently upset about the direction of her life to quit the firm and create a job for herself as a dog walker while she thinks things over. During her "walkabout," she runs into a former colleague and gourmet named Simon (Mark Feuerstein), who takes her to lunch and won't take no for an answer to a follow-up dinner.
Turns out, Simon had the hots for Rose from day one at the firm. Surprised and delighted to find herself with a real boyfriend, Rose begins to lose weight and repair her self-esteem.
Maggie's grandmother, Ella, sizes up Maggie quickly enough and puts her to work at an assisted-living home. There a patient, a retired professor, gets to the bottom of Maggie's problem. Severe dyslexia has hindered her ability to learn or hold a job.
He works with her on the problem. In the meantime, at the lively senior citizen center where Maggie lives with Ella, Maggie starts to shake off her self-absorption and reach out to other people.
When Ella discovers Rose's address, she writes her other granddaughter a letter that will bring about a reunion that may or may not be pleasant. The issue that looms over all three characters turns out to be how the girls' mother died.
The story suffers from a certain tidiness, where many characters exist to teach each sister a life lesson and solutions come far too easily. But the actors are all on their game, especially the three stars, and Hanson never lets the movie bog down in sentimentality.
Diaz gives Maggie a genuine sweetness even at her wildest that makes her loneliness all the more acute. Collette demonstrates how braininess can cover up a person's complete ignorance of her own real worth. MacLaine, in one of her more restrained performances, brings to Ella the wisdom it took a lifetime of mistakes to acquire.
Technical work is thoroughly pro in Philadelphia and Florida, two areas of the country that look as dissimilar as the two sisters.
IN HER SHOES
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000/Scott Free/Deuce Three Productions
Credits:
Director: Curtis Hanson
Writer: Susannah Grant
Based on the novel by: Jennifer Weiner
Producers: Ridley Scott, Lisa Ellzey, Curtis Hanson, Carol Fenelon
Executive producer: Tony Scott
Director of photography: Terry Stacey
Production designer: Dan Davis
Costumes: Sophie de Rakoff
Music: Mark Isham
Editors: Craig Kitson, Lisa Zeno Churgin
Cast:
Maggie: Cameron Diaz
Rose: Tony Collette
Ella: Shirley MacLaine
Simon: Mark Feuerstein
Michael Feller: Ken Howard
Sydelle: Candice Azzara
Mrs. Lefkowitz: Francine Bears
Running time -- 131 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
- 9/15/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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