Page to Screen: In Her Shoes

Yesterday, I reviewed the book In Her Shoes. Today I’m going to review the 2005 movie based on the book. This review assumes that you have read the book and may have spoilers for the book/movie if you haven’t.

I thought the screenwriter did a good job of adapting the book for the screen. The book is really long and a lot had to be trimmed and condensed to make the movie, which still ended up being two hours and eleven minutes long. I thought the choice to leave out Maggie going to Princeton was a good one – I found that part of the book to be unrealistic anyway.

I agreed with most of the casting choices. The main casting choice I didn’t like was Cameron Diaz as Maggie. The scenes where she is trying to read a book to a man in the nursing home she works in are awful. I didn’t find her believable as someone who has a learning disability. Actually, I don’t think she’s that great of an actress in general.  I know that some people thought Toni Collette was too thin to play Rose, but I wouldn’t have expected them to cast a plump actress. Unfortunately that’s just not how Hollywood movies work. Shirley MacLaine was wonderful of course – she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ella Hirsch.

Incidentally, when Jennifer Weiner spoke at the BEA Bloggers convention, she mentioned that she was really happy with how the movie had turned out. She strikes me as someone who would let the world know if she wasn’t happy with it so I think she was telling the truth. It’s always nice to hear that an author is satisfied with the screen adaptation of their book – it must be hard to let go of control over your characters and story.

If you liked the book In Her Shoes then I think you will enjoy the movie as well. I think fans of romantic comedies will enjoy this movie even if they haven’t read the book.

Buy or rent this movie at:
Amazon Instant Video