SHOP GIRL

US, 2005, 115 minutes, Colour.
Steve Martin, Claire Danes, Jonathan Silverman, Bridget Wilson Sampras, Rebecca Pidgeon, Frances Conroy, Sam Bottoms.
Directed by Anand Tucker.

This is not the kind of romantic comedy that one would automatically think of for a review in The Universe. Hollywood is forever turning out pleasant variations on the romantic theme and they simply come and go. At times Shopgirl seems like this but, by the end, we realise that there is some more depth this time.

This can be attributed to Steve Martin. Over the decades, moviegoers have become used to him as a screen comedian. At his best, especially in the 1980s, he was intelligent and funny in such films as All of Me, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and Roxanne. At his worst, he just goes in for some lazy and silly mugging, something he has been doing too much of recently with the two Cheaper by the Dozen films (which bear little resemblance to the classics of the 1950s that older audiences probably cherish).
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The mention of Roxanne reminds some audiences that Martin started his career as a writer, especially for television comic performers. He wrote the screenplay for Roxanne, a modern version of Cyrano de Bergerac where Martin’s performance showed he could do pathos as well as funny. Since then he has written plays and some novellas. Which brings us back to Shopgirl. He has written the screenplay for this film based on his novella.

Shopgirl has a resoundingly mundane ring about it. And that is what Martin intended. The central character, played appealingly by Claire Danes, is Mirabelle (not such a shopgirl name). She has come from a perfectly ordinary family in Massachusetts to make her way in Los Angeles. We find her as a salesgirl in the gloves department in Sacks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills – of course, Sacks is not a perfectly ordinary store, but watching her at work, we find she spends most of her time simply looking at customers passing by.

She has found a small apartment, has made a few friends, but there is nothing special about her life. She does meet an eccentric, rather bizarre young man, Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman) and, out of loneliness, has an on-and-off relationship with him.

The point of the film, however, becomes clear when a wealthy and ageing businessman, Ray (Steve Martin himself) buys a pair of gloves that she recommends and send them to her. He invites her to dinner… and so it goes on. She is gradually drawn into the relationship and comes to depend on him. So far, so familiar, perhaps.

However, we are given a glimpse of the man talking to his therapist and hear him declare that he is really just amusing himself with the affair, that he is incapable of communicating real feelings and has a fear of commitment. This makes the audience complicit in what happens to Mirabelle. She might want to change him, but she won’t be able to.

‘Bittersweet’ is the usual word used to describe this king of overwhelming experience for the girl and even for the man who ultimately will let her down.

Two things make this film different and worth looking at and discussing.

First is that Mirabelle had urged the scruffy Jeremy, almost absent-mindedly, to go out into the world and achieve something. Surprisingly he does (and scrubs up better than we could imagine). Second is the more significant. We see the aftermath of the break-up. We are given time to reflect on what has happened. The impulses, the use of others, the mistakes, the hurt and to see people admitting and learning by their mistakes and trying to build a new life in the light of what they have learnt. This means that Shopgirl is a moral fable as well as a romantic comedy.

It is to the credit of Steve Martin (who gives himself a quite unsympathetic role) that he offers to the wide audience a reflective comedy on today’s moral dilemmas.

1. A Steve Martin film? The novella, his screen adaptation, the star performance? His perspective on life? Comic, wry?

2. The film as a romantic comedy with edge? The young woman? The older man? The young eccentric man? Romance, sexual liaisons, responsibility, decisions? Consequences?

3. The Los Angeles settings, the different areas? Beverly Hills and Sax Fifth Avenue? The ordinary apartments? The contrast with the rich apartments? The world of art? The music world? The streets? A credible and authentic atmosphere for the film? The musical score and songs?

4. The title, the focus and its ordinary sound, ordinary girl, expectations?

5. Claire Danes as Maribel, a memorable character? Her age, the Massachusetts background, seeing her parents in the latter part of the film, the ordinariness, quiet? Her visit to them? Their support? Her father and his experience in Vietnam, silent, yet loving his daughter? Maribel in Los Angeles, her hopes? Her work at Saks, standing behind the counter, watching people go by, boredom? The clients, their wealth? The contrast with Lisa and her glamour? The other shop girls? The management? Going to her apartment, quiet, the cat? Her drawings and talent? Selling a few of them? What were her prospects as the film opened?

6. Her group of friends, out, discussions? The meeting with Jeremy? His eccentricity, his skill in his work? His friends? His forward attitude towards her, going home with her, the awkwardness, his advances, the night together, the consequences? The visits, his pleading for her to come in the night and help him? His gift? Her reaction to his talent, her remarking that he should believe in himself, his believing it? It changing his life?

7. Maribel and the shop, Ray and his coming to the counter, his approach, discussion about the gloves, the gift? Her receiving the gift, wondering about it, his motivations? Her decision to follow through? Going out, the dates? Sharing so much with him? The meals? Going to his home, his affluence? The development of the relationship? What she was hoping from it? Her estimation of his character, position, travels? His work in IT? Her not knowing of his relationship with Christie? The background of his divorces?

8. Ray and the psychologist, his expressing his views honestly, his lack of commitment, the difficulties of commitment, his wanting a casual relationship?

9. The comparison with Maribel, her assessment of herself, of him, of the relationship?

10. Jeremy on the road, the performances of the group, his love for the music, helping with the equipment? Refusing the drugs? The gradual change as he travelled on the road, his reading, taking responsibility, respectability, the visual transformation, his hair, cleanliness, clothes?

11. Lisa and the other shop girls, curious about Maribel and the relationship with Ray? Seeing her dress and Lisa making the enquiries? The information about the card? Her going to the exhibition, mistaking Jeremy for Ray, her coming on strongly, the night with Jeremy, the effect on him, the discovery of the truth and her anger?

12. Ray, his relationship with Christie, his going away, the phone calls, Maribel and her longing for him? The truth, her being hurt, accepting that she should be hurt in the short term? The effect on her, going home to her parents, needing time?

13. Steve Martin and his writing the dialogue for Ray, presenting the older man in the bad and critical light?

14. The exhibition, Maribel’s artwork, the change in herself, her self-reliance? The contrast with the period and her suffering depression, needing the tablets, then giving them away, her relapse? Her pain, overcoming it? Ray and his wanting to buy the drawing? The meeting with Jeremy, her astonishment, his praise of her? The possibility of a relationship – on equal footing?

15. The film going on after the resolution, showing the consequences of the affair, not just simply a focus on the themes? Mistakes and learning from mistakes?