MoviePro.net

We have taken some photos of "Shopgirl". They represent actual movie quality.

• Shop Around posted on 31 August 2009

  A third of the books sold in this country are romance novels;
  over half of us live alone. This is not GTTW. At the end of the
  day most of us wind up with dogs or cats.
  
  
  Steve Martin, which is a letter off of being Steve Martian, is
  brilliant - to me. Of course, I don't watch Seinfeld or hunt or
  run with the bulls - pro wresting is an obscurity.
  
  
  Let's say you have never heard of Steve Martin. Or of his
  novella. If you likes them special e-fects and monsters and
  gun fights - this will be lost on you.
  
  
  But. If living is a conundrum. If relationships are impossible.
  The WHAT next in life is the greatest puzzle? Who's on first? See Shopgirl.
  
  The look, structure, and music of this film are all beautiful -
  but no one dies ( is there an American Film penalty for that?)
  there are people talking to people about: intimacy and
  in the clumsy way that we do it - wish for or vicariously
  wish for LOVE - recognizing that it might be different in Los
  Angeles than it is in Nowhere, Iowa, it is still a wish.
  
  Bless you, King Tut.
  
  

• Mediocre posted on 27 August 2009

  Given the premise of this film, I normally wouldn't have watched it. However, since it was recommended by a friend and since Steve Martin was involved, I figured I'd give it a shot. I found it to be pretty mediocre. Of the three main characters, only one of them, the Jeremy character, was very interesting to me and he had hardly any screen time. The story itself was kind of uninteresting and the storytelling was pretty lackluster. Martin's performance was mediocre at best and the relationship between him and Danes just didn't seem believable (much like Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment). None of the characters were developed all that well. So, it seemed like a conglomeration of semi-interesting ideas, none of which ever came to fruition.

• Good story gone bad posted on 16 August 2009

  The Jeremy character could have been left out altogether! That would have saved a lot of film time. His sex scene with the girl from the perfume counter was completely unnecessary. The doomed affair between Mirabelle & Ray then could have been developed better. Many of the scenes were simply repeats of the same event. "Same scene; different day." Clair Danes did well, given the lame script. What did the scene back in Mirabelle's Vermont home with her parents contribute to the story line? Again, more filler scenes. The story was slow, drawn out and at least 45 minutes too long. The potential for an engrossing May-December affair gone wrong was thrown away on characters that lent nothing to the drama.

• A candid look at the human heart posted on 08 July 2009

  What an emotional film.
  Beautifully acted and directed,It takes a very close look at lonliness, heartbreak, love, and the choices we make, and what we settle for...what is IMPORTANT to us in what we look for in relationships.
  
  Claire Daines character is Mirabelle, a young, sweet and attractive woman who works at the glove counter in Saks Fifth Avenue.
  
  Out of lonliness (and boredom I suppose), She agrees to a date with a guy her own age, pretty immature and rough around the edges, and certainly not boyfriend material.
  
  About the time he exits her life on a road trip with a band, Steve Martin enters the picture. He is a wealthy, distinguished older gentleman, who is captivated by her youth and beauty.
  
  Taken by him also, she focuses all her romantic attentions on him.
  Here's the catch: He only wants a sexual relationship, so going against her morals, she SETTLES.
  
  They want different things out of the relationship, yet it continues, and we witness all the ups and downs of the relationship and also a very candid look at the depression lonliness can cause. In short; We FEEL for Claires character and only want the very best for her because she is so very naive...and vulnerable.
  
  we witness changes in the other man (Jeremy), also.
  He matures (somewhat) and we get to witness a very bittersweet conclusion.
  Not quite the ending I wanted,but a realistic one anyway. We do get to see what really matters in the end. Mirabelle HAPPY, and it is enough.
  
  
  
  

• If you read the book... posted on 08 May 2009

  I read the book about five or six months before I saw the movie and it tears me apart to say that I was extremely disappointed in it. Claire Danes is exactly what I expected Mirabelle to be. She played the character just as I had pictured it in the book. Jeremy was the character that, I thought, had most depth. Unlike in the book, the movie follows him around on his journey around the country and shows how he forces himself to change rather than miracuously becoming a new person like it seems in the novella. Steve Martin was absolutely terrible. Not only was he an awkward narrator, but a completely one-dimensional character. This is even more aggravating because he created the character of Ray Porter. If anyone should have known how to put emotion into it, it should have been him.
  
  Over all, if you are interested in seeing this movie, give it a try. It wasn't terrible, but it was by no means entertaining.

• Vanity piece that inspires queasiness (SPOILER ALERT) posted on 08 May 2009

  We are expected to swallow whole the old, zombified Steve Martin (complete with wispy comb-over) being served the young, naked Clare Danes on the halfshell. An old goat's fantasy that made me kinda sick. Jason Schwartzman is over the top as the slacker alternative in one of the more cliched roles ever penned. Still, I sat through the whole thing. It must have been Clare Danes, resurrecting Angela from My So Called Life, that kept me watching. In the end I wanted her to dump both of these losers and get a self and a life. She doesn't. The end.

• Bittersweet romance posted on 08 April 2009

  "Shopgirl", the magnificent novella by Steve Martin, finally arrives as a movie that expands on the text, as Anand Tucker, its director, demonstrates. Steve Martin also adapted his own story, which works well with the movie version since he knows what he wants to say and how to present the story in cinematic terms.This film is about how sometimes a man, who evidently is a successful business person, can't see what he does to a woman who, in spite of the warnings, has fallen deeply in love with him. Ray Porter, is an egotistical man, incapable of expressing his emotions unless they are in the form of material things. Ray is an empty man who can buy whoever he wants to be with, but who demands there will be no strings attached to any sort of relationship.Mirabelle, the young gloves sales lady at Los Angeles' Saks 5th Ave., is a lonely girl who has relocated to the city from Vermont. It's hard for anyone in that environment to connect with people, especially in a place like L.A. where no one talks to one another and everyone seems to be impressed with celebrities that are to be seen everywhere. Mirabelle is destined to a life of loneliness until two men appear at about the same time, the goofy Jeremy, and Ray Porter.Jeremy likes Mirabelle in his own crazy way. Mirabelle responds to him because he means easy companionship without complications. When Ray appears on the scene, Mirabelle has no clue about what she is getting in for. Before anything, Ray makes it clear he wants no commitment, and no attachment. It's just a convenient situation for him as he has calculated that Mirabelle is perhaps a sexual diversion, at best. He finally reveals what he really has in mind when he tells the girl his intentions for the New York apartment, something that he hasn't included her in, at all.This bittersweet story comes alive because of Claire Danes great performance as Mirabelle. Ms. Danes is perfectly cast as Mirabelle. Steve Martin's characterization as Ray Porter, is superb in his take about this man. Mr. Martin clearly understands what this man is really like and what makes him tick. Both these actors contribute to making their characters feel real.On the other hand, the goofy performance from Jason Schartzman is distracting from the other story. The best sequence involves the beautiful Bridgette Wilson in thinking Jeremy is the real Ray Porter.The excellent cinematography by Peter Suschitzky gives "Shopgirl" a sophisticated look that goes perfectly with the story being told. Anand Tucker directed with elegance and a sure hand making the film a winner.

• Enjoyable; not perfect posted on 08 February 2009

  While watching this I thought "is this another Pretty Woman but with a side plot?" Well, it's not, which is good, and I enjoyed it though it is flawed. There is no basis for the relationship between Ray & Mirabelle. She is in LA; we don't know why. As an art major, she does little with her degree; she can't even pay off her loan. I guess even the women in Vermont drive crummy little pickup trucks. She takes off her clothes for any man who wants her to. Jeremy gains enlightenment through books on tape; now he understands women and knows how to win them whereas before he was a clueless loser. Now he's a clueless loser who shaves regularly. That said, I liked seeing Martin in a serious role and Clare is going to be a great actress if she continues to get parts like these. There's enough pain & character development to make it worthwhile though we know nothing about Martin and his past (failed relationships). I pretty much knew how it would end, but at least it has some depth, just not enough to make it a great movie.

• Bittersweet love story posted on 31 July 2009

  The filmed adaption of the Steve Martin novella is much like the story on which it is based: sad, funny, and perceptive. The story is a pitch perfect examination of Mirabelle Buttersfield, a young LA woman (Claire Danes) who has failed to successfully transition to adulthood. An artist who can't seem to get her life started, she works at the glove counter at Bloomingdales (Saks Fifth Avenue in the movie.) Ray Porter (Steve Martin), a tech millionaire, enters into her malaise, sweeps her off her feet, and helps jumpstart her life.As Mirabelle matures, so does her similarly stalled friend Jeremy (Jason Schwartzmann.) The three meet in the story's final act and their stories are resolved in ways both sweet and bittersweet.Where the book is the perfect length and concise, the movie drags as Mirabelle and Ray carry on their love affair. Still, both are highly recommended.It's great to see Jason Schwartzmann ("Rushmore") continue to mature as an actor.Read more at http://solipsisticblog.blogspot.com/.

• Much better than an afternoon at the mall. posted on 29 July 2009

  It's been a long time since I've seen a film that treats adult romance with the respect it deserves. Shopgirl has the charm of a mature look at the vagaries of trying to connect meaningfully in the city, Los Angeles specifically. As in My First Mister, the young woman, in this case Claire Dane's Mirabelle Buttersfield recently emigrating from Vermont, falls in love with Steve Martin's Roy Butler, a wealthy ex computer operative with unlimited funds to give Mirabelle presents and nobly steer away from commitment. That's the way modern romance sometimes goes with one partner not the same age as the other, not as wealthy or not as ready to commit. Like many of her young women today, the admirable Mirabelle is all of the above and offering only herself, an artist working a counter at Saks, lonely and frustrated enough to succumb to have given herself to young Jason Schwartzman's Jeremy Kraft, an unkempt amplifier salesman palming himself off as a "stenciling" artist. But director Anand Tucker deftly makes the polar opposite males a soft struggle for Mirabelle's emerging womanhood.The cinematography captures the slightly glossy world of half dream, somewhere between the sparkling Breakfast at Tiffany's romantic atmosphere and the equally alluring poverty of the Village or Soho. Writer/actor Steve Martin's occasional voice over commentary about the vagaries of love, especially Butler's inability to commit to Mirabelle, lends an almost fairy-tale tone to a romantic tale that miraculously straddles the best fictions about illusion and reality. The scenes at Universal's CityWalk best express the hip, sentimental, isolating world of a twenty something shopgirl vulnerable to love yet growing with each imperfect encounter. Danes is the perfect actress, Martin the perfect Truman Capote for a look at the new New York---Los Angeles.Shopgirl is a short story telling a little tale about souls in search of love and finding a form of it that carries laughter, disappointment, and transformation in its shopping bag. It's much better than an afternoon at the mall.

• This was magnificent!! posted on 23 July 2009

  I've been reading a lot of the other reviews and simply do not understand the negativity... I saw "Shopgirl" this weekend and it was FANTASTIC!!! I didn't really go in with any particular expectations, but I was pulled in immediately by the atmosphere and reality of the film. I've heard some people talking about the story being unrealistic, but that is what I loved the most....the realness. As a dramatic writer, I am extremely critical of shiny, big budget, unrealistic, rhetoric and jargon being thrown together and called a film.....but this was an honest and true to life film about love, lust, life, ignorance, and loss.There are Mirabelle's in just about every department store on earth and things like this REALLY DO happen to them. I happen to know a couple Mirabelle's... People just don't write about them because they are looked at as the uninteresting part of life. I personally think that people like that, who DON'T think they have all the answers, make the world go round...Claire Danes was absolutely amazing in this role. I've always known that she was going to be an Oscar nominated/winning actor and the time has come with this film. I would bet a lot of money that she will get a slew of nominations/awards, including an Oscar nod, for this film. Her performance is subtle and deep...no screaming and really physical stuff, but it is beautifully affective. I simply loved watching her in it! Steve Martin was very good...and interesting in this role, as I have never seen him in anything like this before. His seriousness and emptiness made me hate and love his character at the same time, which is what I'm always looking for a character to do...move me! As did Jason Schwartzman, who was so adorable that I just couldn't take it. I hope that he gets some recognition for his efforts.All in all, a VERY realistic film, AMAZING performances, and a beautiful soundtrack... Loved this film!!!

• Antagonist as Narrator posted on 20 July 2009

  A strangely moving urban triangle tale, "Shopgirl" moves beyond the B level by using the unsual conceit of omniscient narration from the POV of the affluent antagonist, who loses the love of his life to a drifter capable of loving her enough to change. As a fable for our time, it's hit and miss because of the shallowness of the pivotal character. But her rescue at the end still has us applauding the movie for its heartfelt intentions which in the end slightly over-balance its pretensions.

• Ghastly... posted on 18 July 2009

  I have not read the book but it's hard to believe it could be as bad as this pandering trifle. The characters, the plot & the acting are shallow, one-dimensional & just plain dreadful. The set decorations, as always, are eye-catching.
  
  Jason Schwartzman makes Ben Stiller seem appealing.

• Critics may have loved it but I'm not a critic. posted on 15 July 2009

  My wife and I kept waiting for the pace of this slow moving, unexciting, forgettable movie to pick up. It never did. If you enjoy watching grass grow or the snow melting in spring, this movie is for you. This movie starts out by showing us the humdrum, everyday life of the shopgirl doing her mundane boring work and going home to her plain existence which has no big purpose except for her occasional bit of work on her artwork. Next she meets a dork in the laundromat who is pretty clueless about girls but she goes out with him because something is better than nothing. But not much better. Then Ray enters her life and she goes out with him because? He has money and is cleverer than the dork, I guess. The pace never picks up and the excitement is always missing. Not a movie I would recommend to anyone else. And my wife agreed, this one was not a dog but close to it.

• Slightly disgusting posted on 13 July 2009

  There is something disgusting about the way this film makes middle class life look really unbearable. All the fine wine, the Armani, the cool elegance of a tasteful existence - life just isn't worth living unless you've got money. We're told in Martin's pretentious and totally unnecessary narration that Mirabelle deserved to be singled out, to be noticed - So wonderful of the rich guy to give a helping hand to the lowly "shopgirl". Danes' Mirabelle is smart and capable but this film makes her the captive of two men - its one or the other. Her trip back to her American Gothic Vermont home shows her to be someone with very few options. I wanted to like this film, but after the second or third long and luxurious shot of Martin and his champagne zooming over the rest of us in his private jet I realized this film does think that money is the answer. How can we fault the goldiggers when regular life is so damn awful?

• Don't shop around, choose this film now, it is very fine posted on 07 November 2009

  Mirabelle (Claire Danes) grew up in Vermont and got a college degree in art. Nevertheless, she is now living in Los Angeles and working for Saks department store in the glove department. Oh, she does make a sketch, now and then, and occasionally sells one of her works. But, most evenings, she heads home to sigh and feed the cat, as she is very lonely. One day, at the laundromat, she meets an offbeat gentleman named Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman) who is also an artist, as he designs logos. He asks Mirabelle to go out with him. She agrees. On their first date, Jeremy plans a big night, a stroll on the boardwalk, minus dinner and a movie. Talk about big spenders! Nevertheless, Mirabelle begins a tentative relationship with Jeremy, for she is not interested in big bank accounts alone. All of this changes when an older man named Ray (Steve Martin) makes a play for her affections, too, when he happens to spot the young sketch artist at Saks. Skeptical at first, Mirabelle begins a relationship with Ray, also, as Jeremy has landed an out of town job assignment that will last for months. But, is the wealthy Ray truly in love with Mirabelle or is he merely stringing her along? Who will Mirabelle choose in the never-ending game of love? This is a very fine film, sharply written and sharply acted. Danes is most lovely and touching as the shy dreamer while Martin, who wrote the screenplay, acts out his role as the aging, jaded, emotionally-stunted businessman with great accuracy. As for Schwartzman, he is a sheer and utter delight, making Jeremy into an unusual charmer with a big heart. The setting in Los Angeles is charming, for the most part, as are the costumes and camera work. Still, it is the tale that grabs the viewer by the ventricle, as it is replete with equal doses of humor and heartache. If you are shopping for a fine film for the next movie night, look no further. Shopgirl is one movie that will never be returned, unopened or unappreciated.

• Only Connect posted on 07 November 2009

  Edward Hopper was the great painter of urban loneliness. Shopgirl had two perfectly composed and lit shots that could pass for Hopper paintings -- the one where we first see Mirabelle behind the glove counter at Saks, and the one where she solves the problem of how exactly to cross the intimacy threshold with Ray for the first time. Both involve the display of exquisite merchandise to customers who have excellent taste but don't quite appreciate the full value of what's being offered.The relationship between Ray and Mirabelle is, of course, a transaction. Ray is what used to be called a sugar daddy. He knows it, and within the limits of that role he is apparently a generous and considerate keeper. We aren't given Ray's back story, but it is not hard to guess that a symbolic logician who made a fortune in computers might have been socially challenged, to put it mildly, as a young man, and suffered a good deal of rejection from women. He can now buy what he couldn't then woo, but experience has taught him never to relinquish control and never to let himself be vulnerable. A few hundred million dollars have cleaned up his exterior nicely and given him power over his surroundings, but the inner nerd is still there.Mirabelle certainly appreciates the value of what Ray can do for her. Consider the shot in Vermont where she gazes at her dried out, prematurely worn mother and decides she'll meet Ray in New York after all. But Mirabelle refuses to admit to herself that she is only being kept. We are meant to think the better of her for her self deception. The sluttish, annoying and frankly mercenary but cheerfully self aware Lisa is there to draw an unfavorable contrast with Mirabelle. Paradoxically, it is Mirabelle's self-deceived integrity, and her refusal to use the crude manipulations Lisa suggests, that make her a more exquisite ornament for Ray -- gourmet arm candy for a man with the finest taste. Both women are punished for self deception, but Lisa suffers only comic humiliation while Mirabelle sets herself up for real pain.Jeremy has the makings of a Ray in him, but we are meant to believe that he has -- implausibly -- attained emotional enlightenment, if not the capacity for articulate speech or sustained rational thought. He has earned Mirabelle, we are told, because he has remade himself to be worthy of her. Love may not conquer all in this bittersweet anti-romance, but it still does better than break even.

• Save your money -- worst movie since "The Man with Two Brains" posted on 07 September 2009

  What an utter waste of celluloid! I found myself groaning in pain throughout the movie. Clare Danes was fine but everything else was too painful for words... I kept looking around the theater for the fast forward button. Spend you money on anything else. Martin's writing has the depth of a sheet of paper Steve Martin looks like paste. Both male leads were useless. None of the plot line was believable... why would such a beautiful woman waste so much time on such a dull, self-centered, boring, useless, old man. There was no dialog to develop any of the characters. The only learning that took place in the entire movie was done via self help tapes about how to make love to a woman. None of the humor worked. (All scenes with the cat should be edited out of this movie!!!) What was with the condom foolishness??? The music was oppressive. The omnipresent product placement as well as the blatant consumerism was appalling and shameful. Hollywood has nothing to say because it no longer has anything to do with the real world. Living in LA must be a nightmare with such vapid people as this. Hundreds of millions of dollars must have been uselessly squandered on this poor excuse for entertainment. Do your self a big favor and miss this one!

• Seattle International Film Festival preview - David Jeffers for Tablet SIFFblog posted on 07 January 2009

  Thursday October 20, 7:00pm The Uptown Theater , SeattleMirabelle is pensive. She glides between Wilshire Boulevard and her second floor walk-up in adagio, expectant and unsure. Jeremy is an oaf. He is foolish and eager like a puppy; "I'm an OK guy, by the way." Ray is older and reserved. Surprisingly, he still has no idea what he really wants. What follows is an urban mating ritual of sorts. Finally, Mirabelle empowers herself, but her choice seems hollow and unsatisfying. Steve Martin's "Shopgirl" sat on the shelf for two years, always a cause for concern. The film is deliberate and moody, never hurried but always on the edge of anxiety. It is poetic, thoughtful and somewhat original. Shopgirl is also pretentious, self-indulgent and pandering. Certainly this is Claire Danes' picture. The presence and grace she demonstrates here is a hopeful sign of things to come. Jason Schwartzman is funny and disarming. This performance should let him off the hook for that atrocious "Huckabees" nightmare. Martin seems shallow and distant, likely the image he sought. His conclusion is a page right out of the Woody Allen book of screen writing, but despite its flaws, Shopgirl has its charming moments and is ultimately very watchable.

• Relationships sure can be boring posted on 29 June 2009

  Shopgirl is about a lonely gloves salesgirl (Clare Danes) at Saks Fifth Avenue who is wooed by two opposites, a slovenly Gen-Xer with little ambition and a rich businessman who caters to her every whim (Steve Martin). How can she possibly choose between them? Well, since this is Hollywood, we know that True Love will somehow carry the day. The question is which of her flawed suitors Mirabelle will accept into her heart.I've always like Clare Danes, who's the kind of actress who sort of slips under the radar of most people. She usually plays spunky yet elegant, refined yet quirky young ladies. She's a good choice as Mirabelle, who can do little but stand by and watch the world overtake her. Mirabelle is poised, but she isn't where she wants to be in life - as if working at Saks Fifth Avenue were a mindless chore. The trouble is, she works at the glove counter, and gloves don't sell well nowadays, particularly the classy, highfalutin, long gloves that Saks sells.Enter not one but two new loves, or at least occasional strong likes. Jeremy (Schwartzman) lives in Mirabelle's building and meets her at the communal laundry room. Constantly poor and sloppily dressed, Jeremy nevertheless possesses an offbeat charm that wins over the ennui-laden Mirabelle. Ray Porter (Martin) gets Mirabelle's name from Saks and sends her a gift. Kind of creepy in today's society, but since Ray's so refined and classy and all, Mirabelle doesn't seem to mind too much.So does Mirabelle fall for Ray's nonostentatious philanthropy? Will she think she's found the man of her dreams, while Jeremy goes on the road with a rock band? I dunno, but I sure wish someone had done something to someone at some point. I like Danes, I like Martin, and I like Schwartzman, but I didn't particularly like them in this movie. The movie, written by Martin (from his novel) was slow, plodding along with little or no exposition or development. I'm sure this was meant to convey a sense of reality, that is, that people in real life are really like this. Maybe, but it makes for bad film. Mirabelle is a nice girl, very attractive, but she's boring. Ray has money and class, but he's even more boring (the characters even note their own boringness following a particularly fascinating dinner).Only Jeremy brings any kind of spark to the plot, and thank goodness Schwartzman got the role instead of the callow Jimmy Fallon, to whom the role first belonged. Whenever Schwartzman - the latest of the Coppolas to have a film career - appears on the screen, I woke up and took notice. He has oodles of presence, and he lent quite a bit of it to the proceedings as Martin and Danes merely faded into the background. Which isn't meant to imply that Schwartzman was hammy, far from it! His was the most sincere performance in the film.All in all, I found Shopgirl to be mildly interesting, if only because Martin wrote the book (and provides the toneless narration). The bottom line is that likable characters are sometimes quite dull.