GetOut Magazine

Steve Martin on solid L.A. ground with 'Shopgirl'
By CRAIG OUTHIER
GET OUT

In the Steve Martin-scripted lonely-hearts saga “Shopgirl,” the most poetically impersonal job in all of Los Angeles is behind the glove counter at Saks Fifth Avenue. After all, who goes to a glove counter anymore? It's a retail relic, a minimum-wage ivory tower.

Not by coincidence, it's also where we find Mirabelle (Claire Danes), the troubled human centerpiece of this droll, beautifully judged drama. Crammed into a tiny apartment somewhere in the stucco-coated sprawl of Southern California, Mirabelle — a quiet, unassuming girl from Vermont — tries to make it as a photographic artist while fending off student loan payments (with pleas of poverty) and chronic depression (with Paxil).

To her rescue comes Ray Porter (Martin), a wealthy older gentleman who woos Mirabelle with a novel gift (a pair of gloves that she unwittingly picks for herself) and a nonthreatening offer of dinner. Through Mirabelle's eyes, director Anand Tucker — late of the exquisite sibling drama “Hilary and Jackie” (1998) — creates a somber visual symphony of material bedazzlement: Porter's well-polished shoes, his designer home, the gifts he lavishes on a wary yet flattered Mirabelle. To Mirabelle, it must look like security. To us, it resembles an elegant TV commercial for sugar-daddy largesse.

Quickly, but not too quickly, Mirabelle gives herself to Porter and calls it quits with Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman from “Rushmore”), an off-beat graphic artist about Mirabelle's age who has neither two pennies to rub together nor anything resembling social grace. Rattling on about his “fonts,” holding forth on his scheme to dominate the rock 'n' roll amplifier market, Jeremy makes for a delightfully absurd and disarming character, especially when he escapes the pain of Mirabelle's rejection by embarking on a life-changing sojourn with a touring grunge band. (On topic, Death Cab for Cutie's “This Is the Sound of Settling” makes for a fitting bit of semi-optimistic romantic theme music).

Martin always performs best in self-originated material, and “Shopgirl” is no exception. Porter, like Martin's pluckishly deluded director in “Bowfinger,” is unmistakably a specimen of L.A. wildlife, the kind Martin bags and tags so well. Mirabelle, played with nicely gauged vulnerability and hidden strength by Danes (“The Mod Squad”), is similarly a classic Martin heroine: An unheralded star in the crowded Los Angeles firmament. (This point is not made delicately; on two occasions, the twinkle of a heavenly body resolves itself as an overhead shot of Mirabelle's apartment skylight.)

“Shopgirl” — which Martin adapted from his best-selling book — is not so simple that it would make romantic disapproval its dominant theme. For all the imbalances in their relationship, the main force that draws Porter to Mirabelle is her essential substance and decency. (He never notices her more vivacious, vampy co-worker, played riotously by Bridgette Wilson.)

Still, the couple seems destined for ruin; Porter is too aware of the May-December cliché, too susceptible to that particular disease where life becomes a movie. And that's what makes “Shopgirl” so distinctly the brainchild of Steve Martin. As a quintessential L.A. story, it even outstrips “L.A. Story.”

‘Shopgirl'
Starring: Steve Martin, Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman, Bridgette Wilson
Rating: R (some sexual content and brief profanity)
Running time: 104 minutes
Playing: Opens Friday in Valley theaters
Grade: A-