Movie Review by Susan Hodgetts
Starring: Steve Martin, Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Anand Tucker
One tends to hear the name Steve Martin attached to a film nowadays with mixed feelings. However, for all his acting choices, Martin has always been a talented writer, and he shows exceptional skill and manipulation of material here.
SHOPGIRL is billed as a comedy but is much more a drama of two love stories involving Martin’s character Ray Porter, shopgirl Mirabelle (Claire Danes) and rock groupie Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman). It’s a sweet, mature, and thought provoking story of Mirabelle’s transition from girlhood to womanhood, and how some people can make a transition of dealing with their emotions that others never can.
Mirabelle works in Saks Fifth Avenue on the glove counter. Totally depressed with her lonely life in LA, she meets sweetly shambolic Jeremy in a launderette, but things go far from smoothly for the pair. So when romantic Ray Porter begins to pay Mirabelle attention, can it all be too good to be true?
The characters are all impressively well rounded, as is the film’s portrayal of its central theme of love, commitment and its complexities. I don’t think there are many adults out there who won’t relate to this. Sad, wistful but sweet.
