Review of Shopgirl (2005) by Ryan H — 07 Apr 2010

I must say, I'm a little confused about the intentions of the film. If we were supposed to have a lead girl who we don't know much about other than her love life, and know more about the two guys following her and how she touched their lives then it was really good.

If we were supposed to feel connected to Mirabelle then it fails. But I'm going to take it as a unique way to study two separate male characters connected through one woman. I thought that Jason Schwartzman's character Jeremy was hilarious.

He was the perfect choice for the role. The first date he goes on with Mirabelle is an absolute disaster and I was cringing the entire time. Then when she's with Ray I felt like she was finally in a good spot.

We hear his intentions while talking to a friend, but he helps her out so much that even we get duped into thinking that he really loves her. Perhaps he wanted to, but he just didn't have it in him.

Maybe this is due to what happened to him in his past marriage? We don't get too involved with it, but Steve Martin writes enough for us to understand. That might be the biggest problem with the film; we get little tastes of all the characters but I never really feel like it's enough.

The cinematography in the film is nice in parts, but some of the shots seem pointless. Another issue would be the editing. Some of the shots shouldn't have gone back to back with each other. But the story is told with great care and the actors do an excellent job.

I even liked Steve Martin in this one!