Review

Review Date: 6-November-05
Spoiler Rating: High
Juju Judgment: Junk

Shopgirl (2005)

"Shopgirl" seems to be a parable about the importance of commitment and devotion, but it's neither committed nor devoted to itself. The screenplay, adapted by Steve Martin from his own book, is a mishmash of ideas that spring from platitude and are never given the chance to develop into more. The titular star, Mirabelle (Claire Danes), is a modern-day Cinderella who emits a dreamy aura from the Saks Fifth Avenue counter where she works, a have-not in a bastion of privilege. She's pretty, yes, and lonely too, but offers little in answer to the narrator's question why she's destined for greater things. Her first suitor, Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), approaches her at the laundromat like some weird harlequin from a dream; he's more a garbled concept (comic man-child) than a person. Mirabelle yields to him out of desperation (he's worthy of little else) before she meets Prince Charming, a wealthy older man name Ray (Martin) who picks her out at Saks along with a pair of $150 gloves.

The movie marks a lot of time with Mirabelle and Ray without prompting them to reveal themselves. The clichés come thick and fast: Mirabelle's backstory is limited to the announcement that she comes from Vermont (a quaint but moldy landscape any sensitive modern would escape); her importance is defined by artistic talent and a clumsily injected need for antidepressants (creative + imbalanced = profound); and Ray's emotional detachment is expressed as an offshoot of his jet-set lifestyle and two-BMW garage (money spells an insouciance that will be its own reward). Meanwhile, as Mirabelle is deluding herself that this Daddy is her future, Jeremy is touring the U.S. with a rock band and — honest to god — spending months reading self-help books. This alone explains why he returns to LA a different man, still wacky enough to share a sex-farce moment with a gold-digger yet mature enough to hold out the promise of True Love.

What is the point of this languid, lushly ornamented tale in which the classic style of Mirabelle's wardrobe is of much more interest than her fate? If it had more of a pulse, it would suggest the wisdom of giving oneself wholeheartedly to another, or illustrate how romance as an adjunct to success is different from romance as a part of it, or make a trenchant comparison between a man who's a diamond-in-the-rough and a man who only tenders diamonds. "Shopgirl" reduces these notions to truisms wrapped in tissue paper and tied with a department-store bow.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.