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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice ideas, not fully realized or executed..., April 19, 2007
Ray Porter (Steve Martin), Mirabelle (Claire Danes), and Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), are three Los Angeles folks who form an unlikely and uncomfortable romantic triangle, each a true Angeleno "character" in their own special ways. Having lived and worked amongst such people myself in L.A. for nearly 14 years, the movie's greatest strength is its straight-on depiction of just a small sampling of the wide variety of "lost souls" in the city of angels. It's greatest weakness however is a rather pretentious at times portrayal of such characters, and the uneven and confusing manner in which Ray, Mirabelle, and Jeremy initially and eventually behave and interact.
Based on a short novel by Steve Martin, "Shopgirl" tells the story of three people of extremely different types in the crazy-world of Los Angeles, whose lives meet up once upon a time, with good and bad consequences for all. In the deepest sense, the eventual shallowness of the film suffers because, having been based on a short novel, each scene and character trait should've been elaborated upon to make it more clear to the viewer just who these people really are, and what they are looking for in life. Unfortunately, the screenplay thus feels more like a vehicle more suited to something less than a full length movie. In other words, this would've been five stars had it been half its length, without the (IMHO) unecessary padding and filler.
While the characters are all rather believable to a point, at many times throughout the film, the three main ones do not behave consistently. Therefore, at the beginning, we just begin to believe Mirabelle is just another struggling LA artist (been there, done that), a nice girl from Vermont struggling to make something of herself in the Big Orange, when she easily allows herself to be picked up one night while doing laundry, by a shaggy, truly weird guy named Jeremy. In a much too quick time, the two strangers basically are hopping in the sack, or trying to.
While Jeremy seems like a decent enough chap, though rather alien and quirky, Mirabelle's jumping into bed with him on the second date, when they didn't even kiss on the first, makes Mirabelle almost immediately unbelievable as a good girl from back east. While we later learn of her psychological problems and while they are evident in her emotionally deadening job, artistic frustrations, and drab home life, it seems unlikely that she would hook up with the likes of Jeremy.
In the beginning, Mirabelle seems to realize this herself, and lacking any real sense of self-worth and self-esteem, one day, a handsome, wealthy stranger enters her world in the form of Steve Martin. Soon, the two begin a love affair as Jeremy hits the road with a bunch of rockers. For awhile, Mirabelle finds everything in Ray Porter that she ever wanted, including material gains and a feeling of being special she's never really experienced. There's only one problem however. Steve Martin's character, for all his basic decency, cannot and refuses in the end to offer Mirabelle's most deep desire. Just to be truly loved.
Throughout the movie, which drags annoyingly in many sections, the main character's motivations and desires are really not too well defined. We find ourselves guessing at what each's next move or behavior will be, and while this may serve to make a good film better, here, it all seems just too confusing and forced, just to keep the movie stretched to full length.
The film aims for more than a few "Sleepless in Seattle" and other quasi-cosmic attempts to place this love triangle in context, but Steve Martin's own voice narrating from beginning to end was a big mistake. Because at the end of the day (and film), it seems as if the whole thing has been told from his perspective. A perspective which is never fully or even partially revealed during the film in his own character's true desires.
This is the movie's final undoing, because with a better screenplay and better character behavior believability, this could've been something great. Why Mirabelle ever sees anything in Jeremy (until the end) in the first place, is never explained. Why he sees anything in her is likewise, just not there in the script. Worst however, is why such a worldy and aging, handsome and wealthy man, suddenly chooses a lowly, but pretty Macy's "shopgirl" to somehow sexually and materially "conquest" without the slightest clue of the possible ramifications, remains unexplained and incomprehensible, till the very end.
This is overall a good film and fans of the romantic comedy genre will generally find value here, but it seems as wacky and undeveloped as its characters, and tends more towards rather depressing, uneven drama than comedy. And the "romantic" observations here of three very different types of people, are all over the map, and if nothing, consistently inconsistent.
Rent by all means, before buying. And if you're like me, try to keep that finger away from the fast forward button, which I found hard to do as the film concluded to its again forced and just too convenient and ultimately unsatisfying ending.
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20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It Goes as it Goes, November 2, 2005
Contemplative, serene and very very quiet, "Shopgirl"manages to makes its points through the piling up of many small, muted gestures and kabuki-like scenes.
Mirabelle (Claire Danes in a subtle, ingratiating performance) is lonely and her job as a Saks 5th Avenue salesgirl affords her no opportunity to meet anyone...that is until she meets super-rich Ray Porter (Steve Martin) and at the same time super-poor, Jeremy ( a manic Jason Schwartzman).
Like the novella on which it is based, "Shopgirl" offers up a simple triangle of three lost souls looking for a mate: Mirabelle, the dreamer without the wherewithal emotionally or socially to do much about pursuing her dreams, Ray: filthy-rich, worldly...who sees what he wants in Mirabelle and easily gathers up her bony, rail thin soul in his arms and Jeremy: bright, ambitious, socially and physically inept bursting with big love and big feelings who targets Mirabelle as the receptacle for all of his stuff.
All of this ends on a bittersweet note: neither tragic nor heart-poundingly upbeat. But like Life outside of the Movies: it goes like that sometimes.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bravo Steve Martin !!!!!, February 20, 2008
Some of us probably think that finding love would be easy in a city of millions but as this little gem of a movie points out, it doesn't matter and probably is much harder than in a town of 400 people. The backdrop for this film is a large city and the three characters of interest are people we can relate to or say we have met sometime in our lives.
The main character is an attractive but not beautiful young woman who came from a small town to the big city to explore her artistic talents in her spare time while supporting herself by working in a high end women's clothing store selling very expensive gloves. We see her go through the daily grind of working where she is not really happy, coming home to her empty apartment, and occasionally inspired to artistically create, but she battles mild depression and longs for a true loving and lasting relationship.
She meets two different men (almost at the same time) who offer her what she seeks. One man is her age, has interest in the arts as she does, is somewhat immature, and trying to find his own self while drifting in and out of her life. The other is a middle-aged and successful man who seems to have everything in life except for one most important thing.
Based on a novella written by Steve Martin (who co-stars as the third character), this is a wonderful love story with a both happy and bittersweet ending. There are some moments which are genuinely funny and some moments which are truly heartbreaking as we see when one of the characters fails to mature and loses what they seek most in life.
This definitely is a film which should not be labeled as a "chick flick" because it can be enjoyed equally by men and women and contains some valuable life lessons we can all learn from.
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