In Her Shoes

In Her Shoes (2005)

Directed by: Curtis Hanson
Writers: Jennifer Weiner (novel); Susannah Grant (screenplay)
Starring: Cameron Diaz (Maggie), Anson Mount (Todd), Toni Collette (Rose)

There are blockbusters. And there are those arty movies that win awards at film festivals. And between them there are movies which no body seem to care, basically no one is aware of them. Yet, these movies are made. Films may be an art form, still it takes money to make a movie. And there are people who make who which may not be seen and which may not win awards. Still they are made. Sometimes back, I wrote about Snap Shots. It's a movie like that. Another movie I saw recently, again on TV, this time on HBO, is a Cameron Diaz star-rer In Her Shoes, which also stars Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine. On paper, it's a big star cast, and is directed by Curtis Hanson of LA Confidential fame. Yet, for all its practical purposes, it's a small, cute film that no body saw. And surprise, surprise, the strength of the film is not tall and beautiful Diaz, but practical Collette and a charming and strong MacLaine.
The story of two sisters with opposite temperaments, with a dead mother and a re-married father, and a lost grandfather, the story is not anything particularly fresh, and not even the story-telling. But there is a quiet charm in the film, and you know instantly that it was adapted from a book, by Jennifer Weiner.
Everything ends happily at the end, and I adored that movie because it introduced me to a beautiful poem by Elizabeth Bishop. The reason for writing this blog is also to quote the poem, and nothing else. So, here we go:

One Art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
---Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.