Shopgirl

2005
6.3| 1h44m| R| en| More Info
Released: 21 October 2005 Released
Producted By: Epsilon Motion Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Mirabelle is a disenchanted salesgirl and aspiring artist who sells gloves and accessories at a department store. She has two men in her life: wealthy divorcée Ray Porter and struggling musician Jeremy. Mirabelle falls in love with the glamorous Ray, and her life takes a magical turn, but eventually she realizes that she must empower herself and make a choice between them.

Genre

Drama, Comedy, Romance

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Director

Anand Tucker

Production Companies

Epsilon Motion Pictures

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Shopgirl Audience Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?
Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Vonia Any serious reader knows that the book is usually better than the film. It is the rare exception that even holds its own. Rarer still are the films that are on par or better than the book. Shopgirl is one of these. There are a couple reasons why I think this is so. One, Steve Martin. The genius behind the writing for both the novella and the screenplay. Since he wrote both, the two are actually very similar. Steve Martin plays Ray Porter, the older love interest for conservative, somewhat innocent Mirabelle. (The response she provides when her bold and vindictive co-worker tries giving her tips on how to use men really says it all: "I am from Vermont.") He perfectly plays the awkward older man that truly does not want to hurt the younger beautiful girl, but he is wise only in the ways of courting and treating a girl in materialistic ways. When it comes to matters of the heart, he is as lost as a needle in a haystack. He also does a few voice-overs in the film, all direct quotes from the book. Here are some of my favorites, the ones that best exemplify Martin's impressive understanding of both the female psyche and the dynamics of relationships. "A woman needs to be held, even if it is with someone she does not care about. Protective hormones are released, and the amount of hormones released depends on the degree to which she is held. The first and best is the complete surround. He wraps you in both arms, whispers how beautiful you are. Second best is the 'arm around.' He is next to you but with one arm around you. The third is he's next to you on his elbow, but he rests his hand on your stomach and looks at you. Fourth is you snuggling up to him with your head on his chest, while he looks away into space. But when the first best happens, you feel completely, wonderfully like a woman." "Mirabelle Buttersfield moved from Vermont hoping to begin her life. And now she is stranded in the vast openness of Los Angeles. She keeps working to make connections, but the pile of near misses is starting to overwhelm her. What Mirabelle needs is an omniscient voice to illuminate and spotlight her and to inform everyone that this one has value, this one standing behind the counter in the glove department and to find her counterpart and bring him to her." Mirabelle: Are we going in? Jeremy Kraft: Go in? Oh, no. I just thought we'd look at it. Mirabelle: So. . .we would just sit here, then? Jeremy Kraft: Yeah, or walk around. This place is called City Walk. It got eight out of ten in my date book. It's not called "City-Go- and-See-a-Movie". Tickets are, like, ten bucks too, so. "Some nights alone he thinks of her, and some nights alone she thinks of him. Some nights these thoughts occur at the same moment and Ray and Mirabelle are connected without ever knowing it." "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 that wanting part of her and not all of her had hurt them both." Two, Claire Danes. I have never really been awed by her in her more famous roles. Perhaps that was the problem, though. She does best in subtle roles. In an understated way, she brings magic to the character and her story. Three, the visual representation was a great medium to convey the striking contrast between Ray Porter's rich lifestyle and the careless, scattered, unrefined circumstances Jeremy Kraft chooses. Pair these with the world Mirabelle Butterfield inhabits, which is somewhere between the two, and we have the basis of the story. Roger Ebert has written a review that echoed my thoughts almost entirely, so to minimize redundancy, here are what I deem to be our thoughts: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/shopgirl-2005 I am not a huge fan of Jason Schwartzman, but here he was not as excessive as he usually is, doing well as a loser of a guy not well versed in the ways of treating a girl who eventually learns the error of his ways (during a road trip with a band while he listens to self-help audio books) and redeems himself with his girl. With Steve Martin's soothing voice-overs, the gorgeous shots of Los Angeles, a few hilarious awkward scenes balancing the more serious and sentimental ones, the overhead shots where the camera floats above Mirabelle's apartment and then drifts inside, there was a playful and whimsical feel to the film, even mystical at times. I am sure most viewers were not as impressed by this film as I was because they wanted more to happen. Unfortunately for them for missing out- but fortunately for Steve Martin and me- we know that less is often more.
richieandsam SHOPGIRL.I had never heard of this movie before I saw it on TV. Normally I would not go out of my way to see dramas... don't get me wrong, I like all kinds of genres of film... but dramas are not at the top of my list.The reason I watched this was because I saw it had Steve Martin in it... I love Steve Martin... the man is a legend!This movie was OK. It was not brilliant but it was entertaining. The story was OK. It was about a lonely girl named Mirabelle, who works behind the counter in a shop. She meets a guy named Jeremy in a laundrette and they go out a couple of times until she meets millionaire Ray at her shop who asks her out... she then leaves Jeremy to start a physical relation with Ray. Ray has commitment issues and Mirabelle has to choose whether to stay with Ray knowing there may never be love in the relationship, or be with Jeremy who is basically a bum but does love her.I have to say that the casting for this film was perfect... I was never a big fan of Claire Danes, but she was brilliant in this.My favourite character in this movie was Jeremy played by Jason Schwartzman... Jason was absolutely brilliant. He made me laugh so much in this film. Jeremy is such a weird guy and comes out with such random quotes... but they were awesome! I love this guy!And then you have Ray... played by the legend that is Steve Martin. He played the part really well... I actually felt sorry for him.I will give this film 6 out of 10.The story was average, but the cast and characters were perfect.For more of my reviews, please check out my Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl
Steve Pulaski Shopgirl is memorable for the sole purpose of showcasing Steve Martin's incredible ability to create simple setups with sly wit and capable performances. Based on his novella of the same name, Shopgirl certainly has a premise with substantial ideas sure to bring light a wide range of material, monologues, and emotions, yet the problems that plague the film ultimately stunt the film's ability to succeed.The story revolves around Mirabelle Buttersfield (Claire Danes), a woman working at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills soliciting gloves that could probably only be afforded by the one percent of America, hoping to pay off her mountain of debt. In comes two men who will play a very important role in her life, one of them a socially inept self-employed artist she meets at a laundromat named Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman). The other is a successful, wealthy logician named Ray (Steve Martin).Both of these men bring very different benefits to Mirabelle, and both of them ultimately lack the same quality. Jeremy is the poster-child of quirky hipsters, aimlessly wandering in the uncertain circle of life, providing Mirabelle with biting, eccentric charm, while Ray has enough wealth to shower her with gifts, but fails to commit to anything more than a flirt taken to the next level. What both these men lack is the ability to give Mirabelle authentic love, and are both shallow when it comes to the idea of commitment and the skill of adapting to life's erratic ways.In terms of character development, the film provides some, yet what personally soured it were the character's personalities which were remarkably unremarkable. Ray is a decidedly bland, rich archetype, Jeremy is a rather annoying soul, and the audience isn't too preoccupied with Mirabelle's scenario, which turns from solidly constructed to bitterly formulaic by the latter-half.There's also a problem with many of the dialog scenes which I must go into once more. It seems more and more today, the most recent examples being Terri and The Myth of the American Sleepover, respectively, when characters talk to each other, there is a long, abrupt, unnatural pause between their conversations. It throws off the continuity and the realism of the conversation if prior to a character's response there's a two to three second pause. It's not real, it's not cute, it's cloying and artificial.To examine Shopgirl as a romantic comedy is a foolish and invalid move; it's a drama, with relationships in the foreground. It lacks the romance, the feel, and the formula of one of the genre-pieces; a notable feat, for sure. Its solid performances are aplenty, its strangely greenish-tint adds a nice texture to the cinematography, and the whole film can be summed up with the phrase "offbeat." Unfortunately, there's not enough in the way of tolerable characterization, emotional leverage, and true charisma to warrant a recommendation.Starring: Claire Danes, Steve Martin, and Jason Schwartzman. Directed by: Anand Tucker.
tieman64 "A woman needs to be held, even, and science has shown this, if its by someone she doesn't care about. Protective hormones are released, and the amount of hormones released depends on the degree to which she is held. The best is the complete surround; he wraps her in both arms, whispers how beautiful she is. When this happens, she feel completely, wonderfully like a woman." - Radio ("Shopgirl")Fans of "Vertigo" and Todd Haynes' "Far From Heaven" should enjoy "Shopgirl", directed by an otherwise undistinguished Anand Tucker. With its retro clothing, careful location work, designer visuals, tapestry of voluptuous music and big, melodramatic brush-strokes, the film plays like a poor-man's Hitchcock, but such an aesthetic is rare in cinema, so we savour it here.The plot? Claire Danes plays the miserable Mirabelle, a young woman from Vermont who works behind a Neiman Marcus glove counter in Beverly Hills. The film is based on a novella by actor/comedian Steve Martin. Both watch as Mirabelle struggles with loneliness in a sprawling, inhospitable LA, a city which seems to chew up and spit out fragile souls. Rescuing her from asphyxiation are two men, one a wealthy character played by Martin himself, another a young guy played by Jason Schwartzman. Both seem to love Mirabelle. The film traces Mirabelle's infatuation with the wealthy Martin, a man who treats her like a princess, and disgust with Jason, who treats her as a sex object. By the film's end, these relationships are somewhat reversed. Mirabelle learns that Martin isn't interested in a real relationship with her, is using her, and Jason learns to stop being a bum and treat people with respect. The film's tale is old-news, some of its "quirky moments" grate and several of its subplots don't work at all. Where it does succeed is in its mood and style. Mirabelle's life is given a noirish, almost existential quality, like a sex drenched Hopper or Vetrianno painting, her tiny life constantly juxtaposed to distant shots of vast cities, highways and zillions of little granular people. Martin rescues her from this anonymity, these feelings of low self-worth, and is actually, unconventionally for such films, not portrayed as a bad guy. Selfish yes, but he gets her out of a rut and seems to genuinely care for her. Before it falls apart, we're also treated to a lovely colour palette – lots of blacks and greens, epitomising Mirabelle's noxious, toxic mind space – some interesting architecture (inhospitable urban LA, Duilio Damilano modernism, high street glitz/royalty, middle-class, Tuscan-style/Art-Deco apartment blocks) and shots which fawn over Danes' luscious womanness, watching as she shaves her legs, brushes her hair, fixes her clothes etc. The film tries to capture an old-school type of femininity; lots of curves, retro clothes and mannered poses."Shopgirl" was released one year after Sophia Coppola's "Lost in Translation". Both films cover similar ground, but with interesting differences. Coppola's film was written and directed by a young woman, "Shopgirl" by two elderly men. Coppola's was about a lonely young woman in an alienating city who falls in love with an old man, played by a comedian, "Shopgirl" does the same. Interestingly, the couple have sex in "Shopgirl", get close and break up, whilst never go this far in Coppola's film. Both tap into sleazy daddy-complexes, Coppola longing for older, protective guys, Martin drooling over young ladies but mature enough to recognise the seedier side of his tale. You might say "Shopgirl" is explicitly - even though it ultimately pardons its two men - about why the relationship in "Translation" seems attractive, but may be dangerous. And what's the Schwartzman character here, but the absent-minded boyfriend of the heroine in Coppola's film.8/10 - Stylish, moody tale, eventually falls apart due to unnecessary quirkiness. Worth one viewing. See Todd Haynes' "Safe".