Review of Shopgirl (2005) by Kylie P — 02 Feb 2010

From February 18, 2008:

Shopgirl reads like a mishmash of Lost in Translation and My So-Called Life. Claire is grown up now and a long way from Angela Chase, but her grown-up angst, or at least, Danes' performance in this film echoed that confused and achingly earnest character she played more than a decade ago. What is a little confounding is that Martin's Ray, as well as Martin (who, puzzlingly, narrates the piece, force-feeding the viewer an understatement in place of allowing the viewer to appreciate what was just watched), wants to treat Mirabelle like a fragile, delicate waif to be protected and fixed. Yet, Danes, a very good actress in general, plays Mirabelle as vulnerable but not necessarily this wilting flower suffering a depressed quarterlife crisis. Though her character is desperate for love, in some ways, the performance did not emphasize that desperation, to the point that it was undetectable; the performance, thus, seemed to lack sincerity, which can serve to disconnect the viewer from this character.

It is also puzzling that the audience does not find out that Mirabelle is taking anti-depressants until she suffers her panic attack halfway through the film. She is seen taking pills, but there is never a close-up of what these pills are, and they are stored in and among her vitamins and things of that nature. Since her character did not betray a truly depressed condition until after she supposedly stopped taking this medication, yet it seemed to inform her choices with the few stops she made to her little shelf of pills, this miss in the exposition betrays quite a narrative flaw that should have been better developed when adapting novella story to screen.

Though the film feels a little like Lost in Translation, it lacks any of the warmth the viewer felt between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Ray and Mirabelle are not believable as a sexual partnering, much less anything with emotional substance. Steve Martin never permitted the Ray character to show any warmth, even though he betrayed the subtlest hints, despite Ray's best protests, that he actually loved Mirabelle. In fact, if it weren't for Schwartzman, this movie may have been a cold, gray, and empty piece, where the intention behind it seemed to be quite the opposite. It also would have been nice to know why the Ray character was seeing a psychiatrist.

In the end, the film cannot be truly classified as a romance but as a coming of age story about a journey of inner strength gained by the Mirabelle character, rather than a love triangle between an unfeeling, unstable fifty-year-old wealthy businessman; an affable but sincere twentysomething; and Mirabelle. Which would be fine, except that this character study was slow and distracted by all of the supposed "romance.".

Jason Schwartzman, who is always a treat to watch, played goofy Jeremy with an undeniable sweetness - which also made the film all too predictable. From frame one, the viewer knew Mirabelle would eventually end up with Jeremy, so as a romance, it lost some credibility. As a character study, though, Jeremy and Ray are interesting foils to and options for the adrift Mirabelle. All in all, the film's heart was in the right place, but it was a little slow, cold, and empty to foster a meaningful audience connection (unless the audience prefers slow, cold, and empty).