Sometimes, a story is so delicately told that it seeps into the most secret, lonely places in my heart, and takes hold. This was the case with the novella on which Shopgirl is based. Written by Steve Martin, the novella follows the interior lives of its three main characters with otherworldly skill. To steal a line in the film, I came across the novella when I had “been reading a lot of books on tape.” It took me from Cincinnati to Indianapolis and back to Columbus, and was just enchanting.
Its transfer to screen does not disappoint, thanks, largely, to Steve Martin’s lovely screenplay.
Shopgirl is the story of the breathtaking Mirabelle (Claire Danes), who works at the glove counter in an upscale department store I forget which one - maybe Saks…, which means, as Martin puts it in the novella, that she sells things that people don’t buy any more. She is also an artist, recently out of college.
She meets Martin’s wealthy Ray Porter while working, and he almost immediately sweeps her off her feet with his thoughtfulness, gifts, expensive gifts, and compliments. He cannot, however, offer commitment or love, and Danes does a wonderful and subtle job of translating the resulting emotional pain.
In love with Mirabelle is her absolutely goofy ex-boyfriend Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman) who, finding himself without a condom the first time they sleep together, suggests that maybe she has a plastic bag they can use. Of the characters in the novella, Jeremy is the only one who is more fleshed out in the film, and Schwartzman’s portrayal is to be credited. It is not impossible to see what such a dignified, sensitive and artistic soul as Mirabelle’s might find attractive in this loser.
The only disappointment I had, having loved the novella, is that the relatively minor character of Lisa Cramer (Bridgette Wilson), is less fleshed out here, which make her actions less sympathetic, and more villainous. In the novella, Martin makes it clear that Lisa’s main, underlying motivation in everything she does is an absolute gripping terror of dying alone.
I’ve seen a lot of reviews comparing Shopgirl to Lost in Translation, another film that I loved that explores the young woman, older man dynamic, but as far as I can tell, that’s truly where the comparison ends. They are entirely different films, with entirely different meanings.
Ultimately, Shopgirl is about love and loneliness, and what happens to us when we look for love to meet our needs for fulfillment. At the end, each character is responsible for their own happiness, and their own loneliness.
Four Stars out of Five.
