Shopgirl

Shopgirl is an adapting of Steve Martin's novella of the same title. I have not read it and can not say to what degree the movie remained faithful. Nor in truth do I really care if it was faithful. A movie should be judged on its own merits, not the book from which it was adapted. And based on judgment of the movie, I found Shopgirl to be disappointing.

The movie centers around the life of Mirabelle (Claire Danes) who is sort of lost in the hubbub of LA life, working at a Saks department store and just getting by. Suddenly two men come into her life. One an impoverished, artistic loser named Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman) and the other is a rich, sophisticated older gentleman named Ray Porter (Steve Martin). Mirabelle is quickly swept off her feet by Ray's sophistication and Jeremy takes off on a quest that eventually makes him a better man.

Mirabelle who suffers from depression and certainly has dreams of success in her art wants to believe that Ray will love her. This inspite of the fact that he tells her that he is not looking for a long term relationship. There is an odd scene after Ray states this feeling, in which he with his shrink attempts to convince, seemingly, himself that he made this fact clear to Mirabelle, while Mirabelle sits with friends deluding herself into the idea that the relationship might have a future.

It is from this delusion that tragedy will strike and I found myself unable to sympathize with Mirabelle. Not because I found her rationale unconvincing (no doubt there are women and men who rationalize what they have heard until it is what they wanted to hear) but because it was her choice to rationalize it and therefore her fault when it goes wrong. Eventually the relationship does turn sour, but Jeremy re emerges now a man worthy of Mirabelle and Mirabelle more able to recognize that he is worthy and so we have resolution seemingly.

Except that there is one final scene with Ray, in which I felt that the implication was Mirabelle had settled. Which is in and of itself maddening. Like when you see someone you think highly of make the worst decisions when it comes to relationships, the fact that Mirabelle still loves Ray Porter, when he is clearly an unhealthy match is distressing.

In addition to being dissatisfied with the story, I also found certain elements annoying. The most obvious being Steve Martin's voice overs which I found grating and irritating. But the scene that angered me most was one in which Mirabelle is back home to visit her parents. Mirabelle catches sight of her mother in one of those candid moments that seem only to occur in movies. Where the light hits a person just right and the espied person oblivious to observation shows a sadness or dissatisfaction with life. This scene allows our character to realize they don't want to wind up like one's mother or father. These scenes rarely if ever actually have a dialogue to determine whether the sadness is real or perceived. Is it impossible that one might have caught someone in a moment of weariness?

This "realization" propels Mirabelle forward and all I could think was, did she actually talk to her mom and see if she was really unhappy? Because other than that one scene, I couldn't determine if she was, the mother seemed content. Regardless of my dissatisfaction with the film, it was certainly well shot and acted. As a dissatisfying film it was still better than a lot of movies I have seen this year.