It’s true: this movie is a “chick flick.” That being said, this could be the best chick flick in years.

This film is constructed like a classic romance, with incredibly human characters put in particularly poignant circumstances. Instead of making this a traditional romance, the focus is on the vivid relationship between two sisters: Maggie (Cameron Diaz) and Rose (Toni Collette). It explores the depth of sisterly bond – for all its merits and liabilities.

Physically and mentally, Rose and Maggie could not be more different. Rose is a hardworking lawyer who “settles for love found on the pages of romance novels.” Maggie is dyslexic and skates by carelessly on her good looks.

Although their relationship has never been fair, Rose and Maggie stay friends, because after all, they are sisters. They also happen to share the same shoe size, a factor which is more important than it first appears. When Maggie surveys Rose’s wealth of footwear, saying, “These shoes should be living a life of scandal and passion,” it is evident Maggie is referring to more than just shoes.

Despite their surface commonalities, Maggie and Rose end up hitting rocky emotional territory and their relationship falls apart. When they separately stumble across their long lost grandmother Ella (Shirley MacLaine), they are each presented with an unexpected link to their past and re-examine their relationship with each another.

The most moving part of this film is through the severing and re-birth of Maggie and Rose’s bond. We are given a glimpse into the frailty and compassion of the human spirit. We see Maggie’s vulnerability in her melancholy reading of a poem and her renewed hope by the time she finishes. The despondency communicated by Collette and the buried anguish hinted at by MacLaine are depicted so brilliantly we feel truly connected to the characters. And just as the story would not be able to retain its emotional impact without its moving performances, its relevance would be lost if it weren’t for the plot’s tie to the nature of all human relationships, not just between sisters.

The conclusion manages to effectively capture all the feeling experienced throughout the film, and by the movie’s end, it does not feel as though we have witnessed merely a “chick flick.” It feels as if we have actually learned something about people.