Flighty Maggie (Diaz) is a vain, innumerate, barely literate, unemployable career bimbo and party girl who has seen one too many parties.

Sister Rose (Collette) is her polar opposite - a high-flying attorney who is cursed with low self-esteem and a wardrobe full of designer clothes she never gets to wear.

Together they rub along - Rose constantly bailing out her "twenty-dollar hooker" sibling while Maggie stays just the right side of abusing her sister's wavering loyalty.

However, when she turns up homeless at Rose's chic apartment, gets her car clamped and seduces her new hotshot boyfriend, she gets the red card.

With no-one to turn to, Maggie heads to Florida and the retirement home of Ella (MacLaine), the grandmother she's just discovered the sisters share.

The winning suit of Curtis Hanson's charming romantic comedy is its steadfast refusal to lazily slump into Hollywood convention.

Maggie is a genuinely unattractive slattern, happy to rifle her sisters (and grandmother's) apartment for cash and unabashed while cruising life's emotional shallows.

Rose is a thornier proposition still - a successful career girl unhappy in her job, consumed with self-loathing regarding her looks and unable to reciprocate unconditional love when it is offered.

How they sort themselves out without resorting to cheap sentiment is just one of the joys of this sophisticated offering which is just as comfortable with the emotional lows as the comedy highs.

Special mention must go to Francine Beers' razor-witted rest home resident Mrs Kefkowitz, who provides a welcome drop of acid wit when things threaten to get too frothy.

For a chick-flick with geezer crossover appeal, In Her Shoes is the perfect fit.

Tim Evans