Last Thursday (8 days ago) I attended a special screening of In Her Shoes, a benefit for the Philadelphia Public Library. Adam Bonin, who does lawyerly stuff to help defend the blogs from the intrusive hand of the FEC as well as showing up around the blogs in various guises, knows the author of the book by the same name fairly well and put me on the media list, though as it was a good cause I went ahead and made the donation anyway.
I'd never read any of Jennifer Weiner's books before. They're always talked about in the category of "chick lit" which brings to mind stories in which the plots follow this order:
1) Woman has bad relationship(s)
2) Woman finds independence
3) Woman finds man and true happiness
But all books which are a) written by women and b) about women seem to be slotted into the "chick lit" category, whether they fit the model or not. Rather strange.
In any case, not having read the book I can't comment on it, but the film is of course categorized in the "chick flick" genre. If by that we mean "movie more likely to appeal to women" that's probably fair, but it certainly doesn't follow the 3 part formula established above. It's directed by Curtis Hanson, of LA Confidential fame, and is refreshing in a lot of ways. The movie doesn't follow the formulaic plotting and timing that too many movies have - the story is allowed to move at its own pace, the plot is allowed some breathing room. It makes very good use of on location filming, letting the character of its locations (Philadelphia in and around the neighborhood of Eschaton World Headquarters and Florida) add an extra dimension to the movie. It isn't filled with shocking plot twists, but nor is it a predictable movie - there's a story to be told and it's told without telegraphing everything in advance.
The biggest problem with the movie is the tremendous miscasting of the lead actress, Toni Collete, who too many times we're expected to believe that not only is she less attractive than her sister played by Cameron Diaz, but also quite a bit overweight, which she isn't really even by Hollywood standards. Still, you can just swallow that and look forward to Shirley MacLaine's performance which was very enoyable.
Chick flick? Perhaps, but more "Terms of Endearment" than "Bridget Jones's Diary." Well worth seeing if you're so inclined.
