I love this movie so much

Simply A Masterpiece

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I saw this film shortly before watching In Her Shoes with Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz. There are a lot of similarities between the two films. They both have great casts and good acting. They both have stock characters of sisters who are very different, an offensive stepmother, a woman friend/confidant, an emotionally unavailable father, a dead mother and a surprise lover. Both films have the characters experience life-changing realizations and both films suffer from a kind of 'love conquers all' sentimentality. They both add a little titillation with Cameron Diaz in black underwear and a partial back shot of Gwyneth Paltrow naked.Both films seem contrived, as if the writers of the works the films are based on did market research and said, "Ok, there's a market for stories about relationships between women, so I'm going to write about two sisters with an offensive stepmother…" In other words, instead of the drama emerging from the truth of the relationship, the relationship is invented to fit the dramatic situation. It seems forced, the characters don't seem real, the relationships are unbelievable.The resolution of the tensions between the characters is simplistic with simple apologies completely whisking away years of acrimony leaving everyone feeling warm and fuzzy ever after. It's just not real. Romantic fantasy.The characters in In Her Shoes are a little more overblown than Moonlight & Valentino, especially the stepmother part. Sydelle Feller, in In Her Shoes is so evil that it is difficult to believe that the father would stay with her, or even marry her in the first place. Kathleen Turner at least shows some emotional vulnerability as the stepmother in Moonlight & Valentino.If you liked Moonlight & Valentino you will probably like In Her Shoes as well. Enjoyable performances in both, in fact, the actors bring depth to their parts that goes way beyond the contrived sentimentality of the scripts.

A recently widowed woman (Elizabeth Perkins) tries to cope with the help of her baby sister (Gwyneth Paltrow), ex-stepmother (Kathleen Turner) and best friend (Whoppi Goldberg). Talky but fascinating. All the actresses give great performances with Perkins getting top honors--she's just fantastic in a difficult role. All the characters come across as believable and interesting. The script is great too--they talk and act like real people. Nice soundtrack too. Some may deride this as a "chick flick", but I'm a guy and I loved it! Two (minor) quibbles--Jon Bon Jovi is pretty bad as a painter. He's unattractive, not in shape and pretty wooden. It's no surprise his acting career has gone nowhere. And the ending at the cemetery seemed a little overdone but it still works. But, like I said, these are minor complaints. Well worth seeing.

This movie had me laughing, crying and riding the emotional rollercoaster ride one deals with when faced with the death of a loved one. A "womans" movie as I would call it, with the strength to reach out to the inner emotions and bring them to a head. A movie which could allow me to relate to my own life experiences. I LOVED IT. Very much on a par with the likes of Steel Magnolia and How To Make An American Quilt. Just loved it.

The movie is showing that in only one split of a second your whole life can change.I was very suprised by the acting of Jon Bon. I thought he was gonna suck but he is a very good actor at least better then... let sayAnd Paltrows acting is much better then now that she has that golden boy, I think his name is .........Oscar???