In Her Shoes

Curtis Hanson is weird. He went from L.A. Confidential to Wonder Boys, then shocked everybody directing Eminem in 8 Mile, and now he's back for a chick flick. His choices doesn't make any sense to me, but it doesn't matter, because the results are excellent.
The chick flick is In Her Shoes, a serious comedy about two very different best friend sisters who learn to love each other, and themselves, finding a long lost grandmother in the process.

Cameron Diaz plays party girl Maggie, who can't keep a job and spends her time going out, getting drunk and sleeping with guys. She loves shoes, but not hers. She borrows her sister's, who has a huge collection he never wears. She just buys them because unlike clothes, shoes always look good. Toni Collette play sister Rose, a workaholic lawyer with no confidence at all in herself. She finds a guy, and he ends up sleeping with Maggie, who has been living for a few days with her sister after their stepmom kicked her out of their father's house because she came home drunk all the time. And so they fight and Rose kicks Maggie out too.

Maggie search her father's desk for money when she finds letters addressed to her from a grandmother she though was dead, and so since her sister kicked her out she goes to Florida to live with her new grandma in her retirement home. Shirley MacLaine (who's back with 3 movies this year after a 5 year break) plays Ella, and she's been away from the family after her daughter (Maggie and Rose's mom) died a long time ago. Their mom had mental problems, and so when she died their father told Ella to stay away from them. She wrote them, but their father never gave them the letters.

Toni Collette is always very good, but Cameron Diaz is a very underrated actress. She was great in Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky and Gangs of New York, but because of stuff like Charlie's Angels everybody loses respect for her. This is her best performance to date, award worthy even. Same for Collette.
Shirley MacLaine doesn't have much to do despite the top billing. Her work is really supporting, and it's weird because everybody could've played her part. She doesn't do much connecting with the girls, who share their strongest scenes with other supporting characters or with each other.
Those other supporting characters are great too. Francine Beers plays Mrs. Lefkowitz, one of the old ladies friend of Ella. Lots of great comedy bits coming from her. Then Mark Feuerstein plays Simon Stein, Rose's love interest, and Norman Lloyd plays Mr. Sofield, a blind patient in the home's hospital who helps Maggie.

Susannah Grant adapted the story from the novel by Jennifer Weiner. The story is great, with excellent dialogue, but what makes the movie are the performances by the two leads Diaz and Collette. Amazing work by both of them. And I'm sure it's all because of Curtis Hanson. In Her Shoes is so good because of him. He has something that makes his actors give the most of them for the movie, and just like the girls' shoes, it works just perfect.