Dose of X: MOVIE REVIEW: SHOPGIRL

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MOVIE REVIEW: SHOPGIRL

Published Wednesday, April 26, 2006 by XY | E-mail this post

I watched this movie over the weekend. The fact that Steve Martin starred in it, and that he wrote the novella it was based on, was enough motivation for me.

Shopgirl is somewhat a love triangle involving Mirabelle (Claire Danes), Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman) and Ray Porter (Steve Martin). Only the connections are sometimes real, sometimes imagined, and mostly confusing.

Mirabelle comes from a small town and moved to Los Angeles, but her isolation is more pronounced as she found herself working in a rarely visited glove section in Saks Fifth Avenue. As the world goes on before her, she founds herself wanting to connect somehow, with someone.

This storyline is familiar to most of us, specially to those who have lived by themselves in big cities. Who hasn't been lost amidst the sea of nameless faces? People find themselves in awkward relationships, some that are hard to define, just to feel connected. I guess that's why relationships have become even more complex in this age of information and communication. One of the greatest irony.

Nowadays, if two people care for each other, go out and hang out a lot or even share a bed, does not necessarily mean they are in a relationship. Mirabelle found that out painfully, as Ray declared that he is not ready to commit to her, inspite of appearing to be.

The movie is poignant, as well as funny. And Claire Danes is an extraordinary actress. She actually reminded me of another favorite young actress (Scarlett Johannsen). I read one of the reviews, and it said something like, she illuminated the screen. I think that is very apt. She feels so real, her emotions are almost palpable.

The ending was almost anticlimactic, but all in all, I loved the movie :)

“As Ray Porter watches Mirabelle walk away, he feels a loss. How is it possible, he thinks, to miss a woman, whom he kept at a distance, so that when she was gone, he would not miss her? Only then does he realize how wanting part of her, and not all of her, had hurt them both. And how he cannot justify his actions, except that, well, it was life." - Shopgirl