Susan Granger’s review of “Shopgirl” (Buena Vista/Disney)
Steve Martin channels Woody Allen in this problematic, middle-class “Pygmalion” tale based on Martin’s own novella and set in contemporary Los Angeles.
Languid, lovely, lonely Mirabelle (Claire Danes) sells fancy gloves on the remote top floor of Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. Recently moved from Vermont, her life is pretty empty until, at the laundromat, she meets Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), a warm-but-slovenly, socially-inept graphic designer whose idea of a date is the Universal CityWalk, where he borrows money from her so they can go inside. But then Mirabelle’s quiet elegance attracts the attentions of a dapper, distinguished, divorced older man, Ray (Steve Martin) who – while commitment-phobic – introduces her to a cultured world she’d never imagined. Meanwhile, on the road with a rock band, Jeremy is into improving himself and, on the sidelines, Mirabelle’s bimbo co-worker Lisa (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) exercises her gold-digging charms. Eventually, Mirabelle must decide between the slacker and the millionaire, a poignant, bittersweet choice.
Director Anand Tucker (“Hilary & Jackie”) and cinematographer Peter Suschitzky (“A History of Violence”) bathe Claire Danes in a luminous glow – and with the delicate, minor-key requirements of this role, she doesn’t disappoint, particularly with her second nude scene in a row (She stripped previously in “Stage Beauty”). Relying far to much on voice-over narration, Steve Martin delves into drama with nary a “wild and crazy” laugh and Jason Schwartzman tries not to be as annoying as Barrington Pheloung’s relentless score. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Shopgirl” is a wistful 7. It’s a “May-December “glove story” appealing, primarily, to women.
