Maggie is a party girl who barely graduated from high school, recycles jobs as quickly as yesterday’s newspapers and believes her biggest asset is her attractiveness to the opposite sex. Her recurring state of unemployment leaves her virtually homeless as she bounces between the sofas of her friends and relatives. With no confidence in her intellectual ability, she prizes makeup over books and has an innate talent for choosing the perfect accessories and clothes for any occasion. Rose is a Princeton educated attorney at a top law firm in Philadelphia. Her beautifully decorated prewar apartment is her haven from the outside world. With her nose perpetually to the grindstone, she struggles constantly with her weight and never feels comfortable in the clothes she wears. Her low self esteem regarding her physical appearance has left her dating life non-existent. Rose’s one joy in life is shoes (because they always fit), but unfortunately she has few social opportunities to remove them from her closet. After a calamitous falling out, the two sisters travel a bumpy road toward true appreciation for one another – aided along the way by the discovery of the maternal grandmother they thought was dead. Through their re-connection with their grandmother, Ella, Maggie and Rose learn how to make peace with themselves and with each other.

Movie quotes

Maggie: “Your 10-year high school reunion. Everybody wants to make a good impression and I was making mine on Ted, Tad? Whatever…”

Maggie: “Shoes like these should not be locked in a closet! They should be living a life of scandal, and passion and getting screwed in an alleyway by a billionaire while his frigid wife waits in the limo thinking that he just went back into the bar to get his cellphone.”
Rose: “Please tell me you just made that up.”

Maggie: “If you’re not going to wear them, don’t buy them. Leave them for someone who will get something out of them.”
Rose: “I get something out of them. When I feel down, I like to treat myself. Clothes never look any good, and food just makes me fatter, but shoes always fit.”

Rose: “I liked you… I really liked you. She won’t even remember your name. Probably can’t even spell it. Can you, Maggie? Come on, sound it out. Juh-imm. Jim. Oh, she’s pretty, this one… but real stupid.”
Maggie: “Shut up, you fat pig!”
Rose: “Did you honestly just say, ‘Fat pig’? You’re my sister… and the best you can do is ‘fat pig’? Get out of my life!”

Rose: “What are you doing here?”
Maggie: “I live here. What are you doing here?”
Rose: “You live here? In an old folks home?”
Maggie: “It’s a Retirement Community for Active Seniors.”

Rose: “Why can’t I just stay mad at you?”
Maggie: “Because we’re a pair. Like… Sonny and Cher.”
Rose: “They broke up.”
Maggie: “But they remained quite close.”

Maggie: “I carry your heart with me. I carry it in my heart. I am never without it. Anywhere I go, you go, my dear. And whatever is done by only me… is your doing, my darling. I fear no fate… for you are my fate, my sweet. I want no world, for, beautiful… you are my world, my true. Here is the deepest secret no one knows. Here is the root of the root… and the bud of the bud… and the sky of the sky of a tree called life… which grows higher than the soul can hope… or mind can hide. It is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart. I carry your heart. I carry it in my heart.”

Production notes

As the movie begins, Maggie has burned every bridge with her family. She has hit bottom. “Maggie is like a child,” says Cameron Diaz. “She seems tough and outgoing, but she’s really very lonely, selfish and self-centred. To make her way through life, she can only use sexuality, looks and charisma. Eventually, she realizes these things are running dry, and that she must adopt a different way of living by relating to the people who love her. But she has always seen herself as a victim. She never takes responsibility for her actions, so she doesn’t really understand how she has arrived at such a bad place. When Rose throws her out, she truly has no friends to rely on, no place to go. She is desperate and terrified, and everything she does stems from that fear.”

“Cameron’s portrayal of Maggie is truly magical. She brings to the role a great understanding of how attractiveness can be an asset in our society,” says director Curtis Hanson. “She also knows how appearances can be a mask. The wonderful thing about her performance is the way in which she illuminates Maggie’s fears, insecurity, and vulnerability. So even when Maggie’s doing horrible, unspeakable things, things you would never do to a sister, Cameron makes us believe there is a goodness inside of her. You can see that Maggie is yearning to be taken for more than just a pretty face or the girl with the great body. You feel for Maggie because you realize how badly she wants to make a life for herself, and you understand how her lack of self-confidence makes that so hard.”

Awards and nominations

Nominated – Imagen Award – Best Actress