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Ray is urbane, wealthy and much older than Mirabelle whom he meets working in a department store. Despite the odds, they forge a relationship. | score 1 |
moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable) |
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| Cast Claire Danes, Steve Martin, Jason Schwarzman Director Anand Tucker Screenwriter Steve Martin Country USA Rating / Running Time MA / 104 minutes Australian Release December 2005 Official Site (c) moviereview
2005
ABN 72 775 390 361 |
With a pungent scent of mid-life crisis, Ray Porter (Steve Martin) hunts down Mirabelle (Claire Danes), a beautiful yet bored salesgirl who longs for the moment her life will begin. Granted he’s thirty years her senior, but no matter – Ray is sincere, attractive, sophisticated and, above all, loaded. This adaptation of Martin’s novella (he also wrote the screenplay) is intended as an erudite and witty extraction that examines romance and self in the steely nothingness of Los Angeles. Tinged with a subtle humour, usually offered through the presence of a shockingly boorish wastrel, Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), Shopgirl is unconventional work for Martin. If you’re expecting Father of the Bride: Part 3 – you’re in the wrong cinema. This is a deliberately gentle film that aims to tease a number of threads into a sensitive romance about stalled lives. These mismatched relationships provoke interest for they must resolve themselves, but how? While the book is said to be precious in a good way, the film is precious in a bad way. Martin’s unnecessary voice-over is cloying, his performance staid and dispirited. Schwartzman is at his most irritating as a roadie who finds Zen, while Danes is left to tremble chin in the time honoured tradition. Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie) is either awestruck or dumbstruck, and has all the presence of a man directing from his sickbed. With cast and crew on autopilot, Shopgirl is at best a disappointing attempt that fails to bring rousing actors to bear on a story of great promise. At worst, it is simply a dull-witted look at mid-life crisis.// COLIN FRASER |