I need to start this one by stating the following:
I am not from the school of “the book is always better than the movie”. Books and films are apples and oranges; they are different mediums meant to deliver impact in different manners, and cannot be compared side by side.
That said: I myself LOVED Shopgirl the book when I read it, and I am saying that only b/c if you have not read it, you should – it is a very fast read and a sweet story, and as someone familiar with the subject matter (the depression part, not the sleeping-with-a-man-twice-my-age part), I truly enjoyed it. But I went into the film trying hard not to compare the book I loved to the movie I was about to see (see note above).
So with that – I LIKED this movie a lot. It’s an off-beat love story-drama-comedy, shot beautifully and in a way that showcases LA at its best. Claire Danes (welcome, back) plays Mirabelle Buttersworth, a young woman trying to find her way in LA while quietly struggling with depression and self doubt. While working in the glove department at SAKS, Mirabelle meets two men who will impact her in very different ways: the stringy-haired, weird-but-loveable Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), and Ray Porter (Steve Martin), an older, distinguished bachelor who is not looking for love and not sure what to do when he finds it.
While on the whole I enjoyed this movie a lot, there were a few things that I had trouble with: I can’t lie - though I knew it was coming the initial sex scene between Steve Martin and Claire Danes just made me feel a little yucky (She’s the chick from My So Called Life! He’s had gray hair since the ‘70’s! Its all wrong!), and Martin’s voice-overs peppered through out the film were unnecessary (these all fine actors who give good performances, we don’t need him to explain how they’re feeing when we can see it on their faces). But neither of these things really took away from my enjoyment of the film as a whole. Overall – well done and recommended.
Shopgirl is now playing in NYC and LA.
