Shopgirl

By Zachary Keith Parker

    Based on Steve Martin’s novella of the same name, Shopgirl is almost an enchanting romantic comedy, but it hardly ever inspects its characters deep enough, making excuses for their weaknesses.

    It sidesteps conclusions, or timidly offers the wrong ones. Indeed, Anand Tucker’s adaptation seems a great deal like Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, but with a moral consciousness, except it only pretends to have one.

    Mirabelle (Claire Danes) is noticeably conscious about the love between couples walking through the mall where she works, and she seems to desire such a relationship.

    Later at the laundromat, she meets Jeremy (Jason Schwartzmann), who reassures her he’s “an okay guy.” Mirabelle soon realizes the gravity of Jeremy’s “okayness” and rebukes him, which inspires him to take a road trip as a means to bring himself back down to earth.

    Meanwhile, the charming Ray Porter (Steve Martin) surprisingly rescues Mirabelle from her quiet job in the obscure glove department. She falls in love with the gentleman, and is anxious for him to take their relationship to a deeper level.

    On the other hand, Ray fools himself into believing he has adequately explained to Mirabelle that he just only wants to have sex with her every time he comes back to town. She’s his mistress, and he’s her lover.

    But how long will that last? Will Ray step up to commitment and as the knight she wants him to be, and rescue Mirabelle?

    Steve Martin attempts behavioral restraint as Ray, which sometimes comes across as seemingly forced. However, Jason Schwartzmann deserves the most credit, even though he’s playing nearly the same sloppy cheeseball character that we saw in S1m0ne, I Heart Huckabees, and Bewitched, but his character is more pleasantly surprising, vaguely similar to Max Fischer in Rushmore.

    Not nearly as obsessive as Max, Jeremy is sincere and genuinely affectionate, but he errs more appallingly than Mirabelle knows. Ray’s central flaw is that he only affects sincerity, but has promising potential. Mirabelle’s final decision is self-consciously less than satisfactory, but it is supposedly understandable.

    Of course, that is unless we are thinking about the moral ramifications of these characters’ behavior, and the film’s conclusion on people’s weaknesses, which deserves “no justification except ‘that’s life.’”

    Regrettably, Shopgirl is content giving such excuses even though Jeremy and Ray are in fact equally disturbing and self-centered men. Both have robbed Mirabelle of her innocence, and her consequent resolution looks forward to nothing better.

    Thus the film’s outlook on life echoes a new meaning to the film’s title in that it capitalizes on the idea that Mirabelle is a shopgirl who every so often sees the gifts other people sometimes find. At the same time, she is a shopgirl who must be prepared to walk into a store (life) and content herself obtaining only the best available.

    To Shopgirl’s credit, Jason Schwartzmann sometimes lifts the overbearing presence of its muddled morality and disappointing story with his wacky humorous character. The film still worthily communicates its characters’ problems and dilemmas, making it a sometimes delicate watch. However, Shopgirl is a sadly mediocre product, which avoids customer satisfaction, advertising itself as something lovely that we would like to see but don't.