If the Shoe Fits

Inspired by Cinderella, If the Shoe Fits follows Jennifer Grey’s mousy Kelly Carter as her crush on a pompous fashion designer (Rob Lowe’s Francesco Salvitore) goes unanswered until a fairy godmother figure steps in – with the narrative detailing Kelly’s efforts at winning Francesco over with her real personality (rather than with the slick, supermodel-like figure she becomes when she wears magical shoes). If the Shoe Fits, directed by Tom Clegg, finds itself saddled with an often excessively low-rent feel that exacerbates its myriad of problems, including an ongoing reliance on egregiously over-the-top instances of comedy and oddly unappealing work from its otherwise charismatic stars. (Lowe delivers what just may be the worst performance of his career here, to be sure.) There’s never a point at which one is drawn into the fairy-tale like atmosphere, although, to be fair, the picture does improve slightly as it goes on (ie Clegg backs off of the broad tone to a minor but appreciated degree). The lack of internal logic only compounds the movie’s various problems (eg it makes no sense that nobody recognizes Kelly when she’s in her supermodel garb, for example), and it’s clear, too, that the expected happy ending is hardly able to make the feel-good impact Clegg is obviously striving for – with the end result a mostly ineffective romcom that might appeal to undiscriminating teenage girls but few others.

*1/2 out of ****