Guess it is movie weekend

Last night, we watched In Her Shoes with Cameron Diaz. We weren't sure what to expect, but it turned into a thoughtful film about family, generational conflict, and loss. Those themes caught me at a very personal level and even the next morning, I am still mulling over the characters. Shirley Maclaine may be a nutjob, but her role as the grandmother is one that still sticks in my head. In a film like this, the greatest compliment is that it replicated real conversations, and real people. You know the difference. Most films and tv characters aren't real. They don't talk, or fight, or argue like real people. This one has moments where they are palpably real. Not always, mind you. This isn't a perfect film. The stepmother is a caricature, as is the sister's ex-boyfriend/boss, but many of the others are quite real and interesting.

The film worked for me. The characters still resonate--the issues are deeply personal and even painful. In one of my favorite scenes, Cameron's character reads a poem by Elizabeth Bishop called "The Art of Losing."

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. 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. Look like disaster.