Shopgirl

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

Release Date: October 21st, 2005 (wide)

Cast: Claire Danes (Mirabelle), Steve Martin (Ray Porter), Jason Schwartzman (Jeremy), Sam Bottoms, Frances Conroy, Rebecca Pidgeon, Joshua Snyder (Trey Bryan), Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Gina Doctor (Del Rey), Anne Marie Howard (Mandy)

Director: Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie, Saint-Ex)

Screenwriter: Steve Martin (L.A. Story, Bowfinger, Roxanne; cowriter of The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains)

Based Upon: The bestselling novella, "Shopgirl", by actor Steve Martin (his first, though he's published several other books, mostly collections of essays and short stories).

Premise: Mirabelle (Danes) is an aspiring artist who makes her living selling gloves and other accessories at Saks in Beverly Hills who feels useless at her job and bored in her relationship with Jeremy (Schwartzman), a struggling musician, until... she's bowled over by a rich, divorced older man, Ray Porter (Martin), who enters her life. As she finds herself falling in love with Ray, she must make a choice between her two suitors...

[Myxo]

I saw a bit of the footage for this on E! the other night. I really hope it's good because I enjoy Claire Danes in the movies I've seen.

[modage]

weird.

remember when claire danes was in movies?

it looks like a cross between lost in translation and mainstream romantic comedies.  <- thats weird.  

[noyes]

doesn't seem too bad.. but then again..

[Pubrick]

the weirdest part is anand tucker, and a NOTWIST song in the trailer (consequence). i wasn't expecting that.

and to a lesser extent explosions in the sky (first breath after coma) and death cab (sound of settling), they might be going for the Garden State crowd with that last one. if it maintains the initial vibe it will be good.

[Ghostboy]

This was okay. It's got some really lovely bittersweet material in it, and Claire Danes is really good, but there's also some comedic stuff that just feels completely out of place, most of which has to do with Jason Schwartzman's character. There are at least three scenes with him that have nothing to do with the rest of the movie and prolong the proceedings unnecessarily.

The score is incredibly gorgeous, though, and I'd recommend seeing the film just to hear it. Also, the photography is lovely, although by the eighteenth time they cut to the same establishing shot of Saks 5th Avenue I thought I was going to scream.

It ain't Hilary & Jackie.

[pete]

I'd been reading the book.  the book was quite terrible.

[Ghostboy]

I assume the narration (which is by Steve Martin, although it's not the character he plays, which isn't really confusing so much as it is annoying) is taken straight from the book, and it ain't too special.

[modage]

yeah this was weird.  there were about 15 sentences of narration in the whole film which were completely unneccesary.  one, because they were, just show us, dont tell us, its not a book, its not that dense with exposition?  and two because it was steve martins narration when the film is completely from claire danes pov, which was just awkward, but to make things worse he referred to his character in the narration so he was just like 'narrator' and omni and that was just weird.  it did seem like a sort of melancholy romance in a LIT way except this seemed to revolve around sex and the whole thing seemed a bit creepy.  an odd film.  i can see why it didnt connect though there are some likable things about it.  and i thought the score seemed like it belonged to a different film.  so did a few of the artsier shots.

[MacGuffin]

Agreed with GB and mod on some points. The movie opens with an excellent meet-cute between Danes and Schwartzman. But from there it turns a strange corner. Schwartzman drops out of the main story line and the scenes with him make for a poor counter-balance for those between Danes and Martin, because the cutting back-and-forth do extreme 180's between drama and comedy. As for the narration, it was completely unnecessary. It was too on-the-nose and only drove home the clear points already established. As mentioned, the score was excellent, but, at times, did feel like it was from another film. The winner here, however, is Danes. She and her character are far better than the film. She was perfectly cast for this role, and I would recommend seeing this film for her alone.

[Link]

I fell in love with this movie, but only a little while after I saw it.  It wasn't one of those that hit me right away.  I like Steve Martin in a subtler role, and as mentioned before, Claire Danes is great in it as well.  Yeah, I can see how some of the Jason Schwartzman (sp?) stuff seems out of place in the film (and it was handled a little differently in the book, but still a little silly [but that's really never a good excuse -- just because it was like that in the book doesn't mean it has to be on the film]), but for some reason I didn't mind it too much at all.  I read the novella after the film (but saw the film after I read Martin's other book, "The Pleasure of My Company" which I think I liked more than "Shopgirl), and I still enjoyed it, though I totally agree that the narration in the film was absolutely unnecessary.  Either put it throughout the entire film (and don't make it redundant or obvious), or just leave it out.  It really didn't need it.  But it all just kinda grew on me.

[Stefen]

This movie is underrated.

Steve Martin and Jason Schwartzman are so good in this. Martin is very charming and plays his role perfectly. I wish he'd do more roles like this. And Schwartzman is hilarious and always saying the wrong things, but not knowing it.

The narration was a bit much at times and came off as clumsy, and at times, confusing, but it didn't take away from the film too much.

It didn't pile anything on when it really could have. Jeremy and Ray couldn't be anymore different from eachother and Mirabelle couldn't have been anymore different than them either. 

[SiliasRuby]

I fell in love with this movie, but only a little while after I saw it.  It wasn't one of those that hit me right away.  I like Steve Martin in a subtler role, and as mentioned before, Claire Danes is great in it as well.  Yeah, I can see how some of the Jason Schwartzman (sp?) stuff seems out of place in the film (and it was handled a little differently in the book, but still a little silly [but that's really never a good excuse -- just because it was like that in the book doesn't mean it has to be on the film]), but for some reason I didn't mind it too much at all.  I read the novella after the film (but saw the film after I read Martin's other book, "The Pleasure of My Company" which I think I liked more than "Shopgirl), and I still enjoyed it, though I totally agree that the narration in the film was absolutely unnecessary.  Either put it throughout the entire film (and don't make it redundant or obvious), or just leave it out.  It really didn't need it.  But it all just kinda grew on me.

Couldn't agree more and I really wish Steve did more like these and less Family stuff, because he's recently been going into Eddie Murphy territory as far as films go, for the last 5 years.