Shopgirl
Encyclopedia
Shopgirl is a 2005 American romantic
drama film
directed by Anand Tucker
. The screenplay
by Steve Martin
is based on his 2000 novella of the same name
.
), a transplanted Vermont
er, is an aspiring artist and sales
woman at the evening gloves
counter at Saks Fifth Avenue
in Beverly Hills
. Her quiet, orderly existence - filled with both the mundane (futon furniture and an aging pickup truck) and the serious (a large student loan
and a supply of antidepressants) - is disrupted by the sudden appearance of two disparate men.
Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman
) is an immature, awkward, socially inept, penniless twenty-something graphic designer for an amplifier
manufacturer and aspiring typographer who enters Mirabelle's life first (in a laundromat). Mirabelle, aching for any kind of meaningful contact with someone else, gives him a chance, but it quickly fizzles after a half-hearted date (that she pays for) followed by a woefully underwhelming sexual encounter. Ray Porter (Steve Martin
) is a considerably older, suave, well-dressed, wealthy, divorced logician. Ray charms Mirabelle over the course of a few dates, one of which ends at his house. Mirabelle offers herself to him, and after they have sex, the next morning Ray tells her that he does not intend for their relationship to be serious due to his constant traveling between L.A. and Seattle. Both have different understandings of this talk: Ray tells his psychiatrist that Mirabelle knows that he is going to see other people, and Mirabelle tells her acquaintances that Ray wanted to see her more.
Mirabelle and Ray embark on a lengthy affair, during which time Jeremy is working as a roadie
for the band Hot Tears. He attempts to have one last liaison with Mirabelle before leaving, but she spurns him due to her relationship with Ray. While on tour, the band's lead singer introduces Jeremy to the world of self-improvement and how to better relate to the opposite sex. Mirabelle becomes increasingly devoted to Ray, who showers her with expensive gifts (such as paying off her student loans) instead of emotional affection. When Mirabelle's depression hits her hard (she has ceased to take her antidepressants because Ray makes her happy), he takes her to the doctor and cares for her, further deepening her reliance on him. Ray is spurred to invite Mirabelle on a trip to New York for which Ray has her fitted in the dress shop at Armani.
During a business trip, Ray has dinner with an old friend. During dinner she propositions him and he accepts. Ray immediately confesses on return to L.A. and a devastated Mirabelle cuts things off with him, cancels her trip to New York and decides to visit Vermont. While she is basking in the warmth and familiarity of home, Ray calls. He apologizes for hurting her and asks her to come to New York. She accepts and attends his function. She is the youngest person at the party and is for the most part, alone and out of place. When they return to the hotel room, Ray wants to be intimate, but Mirabelle is not ready.
A while later, Mirabelle meets Jeremy by accident on the way to an art gallery showing and her coworker Lisa (who has investigated the bearer of the new clothes Mirabelle has been wearing to work) mistakes him for Ray when they walk in together. Jeremy is a new man and all he has learned during his time away is evident to anyone but Mirabelle. After the showing, Mirabelle goes home with Ray and Lisa goes home with Jeremy thinking he's Ray. The next morning Ray devastates Mirabelle by announcing that he plans on looking for a bigger house in case he "meets someone and decides to have kids". Jeremy calls Lisa thinking they have made a connection, but quickly finds out she has no interest in anything but Ray Porter (and his money).
Mirabelle decides to stop postponing the inevitable and breaks things off with Ray for good. After taking time to grieve the loss of the relationship, she quits her job at Saks for one as a receptionist in an art gallery. Jeremy then begins to pursue her again, this time the correct way. Over time they fall in love with one another and eventually make love. Mirabelle receives an invitation to show her work and at the opening, Ray shows up with his new girlfriend. Their interaction is noticeably strained as they search for shallow things to chat about. At the end of their conversation, Ray apologizes for how deeply he hurt her and admits (for the first time) that he did love her. A shocked and touched Mirabelle smiles through her oncoming tears and turns to walk away. As Ray watches Mirabelle run into Jeremy's loving arms, he remarks on how he feels a loss although he purposefully kept Mirabelle at arm's length so that when they broke up it would not hurt him, which it inevitably does.
's original novella, Mirabelle was employed by Neiman Marcus
. According to Evolution of a Novella: The Making of Shopgirl, a bonus feature on the DVD release, Saks Fifth Avenue actively pursued participation in the film by presenting a proposal to the producers and director and promising full cooperation with filming schedules. The gloves in the counter are not from Saks, but a boutique in Toronto, where some of the film was shot.
According to Martin's book Born Standing Up
, there are many parallels to Martin's own life. Early in his career, he lost a girlfriend to an older, suave gentleman resembling Ray Porter, real-life Mason Williams
. Williams had a house that matches the description of Ray Porter's, it overlooked Los Angeles from roughly the same vantage point and the descriptions of the two houses are the same. Williams was an actuary at one point, whereas Porter was a logician. Martin and Williams both vied for the attention of a girlfriend, Nina. The relationship ended when Martin, much like the Schwartzman character, goes on a cross country tour as a roadie. These parallels make the novella somewhat autobiographical.
In addition, character Mirabelle is partially based on artist Allyson Hollingsworth who was a consultant to the movie, and who had a relationship with Martin in the 90s. Photographs and drawings attributed to Mirabelle in the movie are by Hollingsworth.
Martin had Tom Hanks
in mind for the role of Ray Porter at the time he was writing the screenplay, but director Anand Tucker felt that Martin was so close to the material and had such a strong understanding of the character that Martin should play the part himself. After auditioning numerous actresses, he knew Claire Danes
was perfect for the role of Mirabelle as soon as she began reading lines with Martin. He found Jeremy much more difficult to cast, and remembered Jason Schwartzman
(but not his name) from his performance in Rushmore
only two weeks before filming was scheduled to begin.
The apartment building used for Mirabelle's residence is located at 1630 Griffith Park Boulevard in Los Angeles
.
The songs "Lily & Parrots," "Carry Me Ohio," and "Make Like Paper" were written and performed by Mark Kozelek
. Tucker remembered him from his appearance in Almost Famous
and cast him as the lead singer of Hot Tears. Both "Carry Me Ohio" and "Lily and Parrots" were tracks on Ghosts of the Great Highway, the first CD released by Kozelek's real-life band Sun Kil Moon
. "Make Like Paper" was a track from "Songs for a Blue Guitar", an album by Kozelek's earlier band Red House Painters
.
The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2005. It was shown at the Chicago International Film Festival
and the Austin Film Festival
before going into limited release in the US.
The film grossed $10,284,523 in the US and $1,303,682 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $11,588,205.
, the film has 87 "Fresh" and 54 "Rotten" reviews, for an average rating of 6.4 out of 10, and is rated a 62 (based on 37 reviews) at Metacritic
.
In his review in the New York Times, A.O. Scott called the film "elegant and exquisitely tailored . . . both funny and sweetly sad" and added, "[It] is a resolutely small movie, finely made and perhaps a bit fragile. Under the pressure of too much thought, it might buckle and splinter; the characters might look flimsy, their comings and goings too neatly engineered, their lovability assumed rather than proven. And it's true that none of them are perfect. From where I sit, though, the film they inhabit comes pretty close."
Mick LaSalle
of the San Francisco Chronicle
described it as "a film of wisdom, emotional subtlety and power . . . directed with a rare combination of delicacy and decisiveness."
In Variety
, Joe Leydon observed, "Martin hits all the right notes while subtly conveying both the appealing sophistication and the purposeful reserve of Ray. But he cannot entirely avoid being overshadowed by Dane's endearingly vulnerable, emotionally multifaceted and fearlessly open performance. (In a few scenes, she appears so achingly luminescent it's almost heartbreaking to watch her.) The two stars bring out the very best in each other, particularly in a poignant final scene."
Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times
said the film is "like Pygmalion
for the upper-middle-brow business class flier. Which isn't to say it's bad. On the contrary, it's smart, spare, elegant and understated . . . Danes can fill a scene with one wounded glance, and her body language alone conveys a richness of character that makes an otherwise not very expressive character mesmerizing."
In Rolling Stone
, Peter Travers
rated it three out of a possible four stars and commented, "The May–December thing worked in Lost in Translation
and it works here, thanks to the perceptive and gracefully romantic script that Martin has adapted from his novella. This is not the wild-and-crazy Martin of Bringing Down the House
, this is the Martin who writes for The New Yorker
with erudition and wit."
Steve Persall of the St. Petersburg Times
graded the film C and called it "too slight to be considered a movie yet padded enough to pose as a feature-length work . . . The blessing and curse of cinema is its ability to compress ideas into simple images. When the ideas are this simple, cinema crushes them to dullness. Mirabelle's unremarkable life simply doesn't deserve big screen treatment. Any author other than a Hollywood favorite like Martin likely wouldn't get it done."
In New York
, Ken Tucker stated, "The challenge of the movie consists of making you believe that these two people, separated by age and status, could fall in love. Shopgirl succeeds in this with a confidence so sure and serene that you feel through much of the movie as though you’re listening to a fairy tale, an effect enhanced by the voice-over narration provided in soothing tones by Martin-as-Ray."
Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today
said, "A serene luminescence surrounds Claire Danes [who] - reduced of late to action drivel (Terminator 3) or bit roles (The Hours
) — finally fulfills the potent promise of her mid-'90s TV series My So-Called Life
. Los Angeles doesn't look half-bad, either. When director Anand Tucker isn't training his camera on the jewel-like traffic lights below or the sparkling cosmos above, he portrays the City of Angels as a haven of spare elegance and urbane stylishness, as if it were Woody Allen
's Manhattan
but with better weather and inviting outdoor pools. But save for savoring Danes and an L.A. cleansed of gaudy excess, there is little that is truly novel about Shopgirl . . . The film ultimately lets Mirabelle down and leaves the viewer dissatisfied. A Lost in Translation
drained of its wryly observed humor, Shopgirl is worth a browse. But it isn't always easy to buy."
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Anand Tucker
Anand Tucker
Anand Tucker is a film director and producer based in London. He began his career directing factual television programming and adverts...
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
is based on his 2000 novella of the same name
Shopgirl (novella)
Shopgirl is a 2000 novella written by Steve Martin. Martin adapted his book for a 2005 film of the same title.-Synopsis:Its titular character is young, lonely, depressed, Vermont transplant Mirabelle Buttersfield, who sells expensive evening gloves nobody ever buys at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills...
.
Plot
Mirabelle Buttersfield (Claire DanesClaire Danes
Claire Catherine Danes is an American actress of television, stage and film. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in...
), a transplanted Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
er, is an aspiring artist and sales
Sales
A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....
woman at the evening gloves
Glove
A glove is a garment covering the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each...
counter at Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor...
in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
. Her quiet, orderly existence - filled with both the mundane (futon furniture and an aging pickup truck) and the serious (a large student loan
Student loan
A student loan is designed to help students pay for university tuition, books, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in that the interest rate may be substantially lower and the repayment schedule may be deferred while the student is still in education...
and a supply of antidepressants) - is disrupted by the sudden appearance of two disparate men.
Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman
Jason Schwartzman
Jason Francesco Schwartzman is an American actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Hollywood films Rushmore, Spun, I Heart Huckabees, Shopgirl, Marie Antoinette, The Darjeeling Limited, Funny People, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World...
) is an immature, awkward, socially inept, penniless twenty-something graphic designer for an amplifier
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
manufacturer and aspiring typographer who enters Mirabelle's life first (in a laundromat). Mirabelle, aching for any kind of meaningful contact with someone else, gives him a chance, but it quickly fizzles after a half-hearted date (that she pays for) followed by a woefully underwhelming sexual encounter. Ray Porter (Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
) is a considerably older, suave, well-dressed, wealthy, divorced logician. Ray charms Mirabelle over the course of a few dates, one of which ends at his house. Mirabelle offers herself to him, and after they have sex, the next morning Ray tells her that he does not intend for their relationship to be serious due to his constant traveling between L.A. and Seattle. Both have different understandings of this talk: Ray tells his psychiatrist that Mirabelle knows that he is going to see other people, and Mirabelle tells her acquaintances that Ray wanted to see her more.
Mirabelle and Ray embark on a lengthy affair, during which time Jeremy is working as a roadie
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...
for the band Hot Tears. He attempts to have one last liaison with Mirabelle before leaving, but she spurns him due to her relationship with Ray. While on tour, the band's lead singer introduces Jeremy to the world of self-improvement and how to better relate to the opposite sex. Mirabelle becomes increasingly devoted to Ray, who showers her with expensive gifts (such as paying off her student loans) instead of emotional affection. When Mirabelle's depression hits her hard (she has ceased to take her antidepressants because Ray makes her happy), he takes her to the doctor and cares for her, further deepening her reliance on him. Ray is spurred to invite Mirabelle on a trip to New York for which Ray has her fitted in the dress shop at Armani.
During a business trip, Ray has dinner with an old friend. During dinner she propositions him and he accepts. Ray immediately confesses on return to L.A. and a devastated Mirabelle cuts things off with him, cancels her trip to New York and decides to visit Vermont. While she is basking in the warmth and familiarity of home, Ray calls. He apologizes for hurting her and asks her to come to New York. She accepts and attends his function. She is the youngest person at the party and is for the most part, alone and out of place. When they return to the hotel room, Ray wants to be intimate, but Mirabelle is not ready.
A while later, Mirabelle meets Jeremy by accident on the way to an art gallery showing and her coworker Lisa (who has investigated the bearer of the new clothes Mirabelle has been wearing to work) mistakes him for Ray when they walk in together. Jeremy is a new man and all he has learned during his time away is evident to anyone but Mirabelle. After the showing, Mirabelle goes home with Ray and Lisa goes home with Jeremy thinking he's Ray. The next morning Ray devastates Mirabelle by announcing that he plans on looking for a bigger house in case he "meets someone and decides to have kids". Jeremy calls Lisa thinking they have made a connection, but quickly finds out she has no interest in anything but Ray Porter (and his money).
Mirabelle decides to stop postponing the inevitable and breaks things off with Ray for good. After taking time to grieve the loss of the relationship, she quits her job at Saks for one as a receptionist in an art gallery. Jeremy then begins to pursue her again, this time the correct way. Over time they fall in love with one another and eventually make love. Mirabelle receives an invitation to show her work and at the opening, Ray shows up with his new girlfriend. Their interaction is noticeably strained as they search for shallow things to chat about. At the end of their conversation, Ray apologizes for how deeply he hurt her and admits (for the first time) that he did love her. A shocked and touched Mirabelle smiles through her oncoming tears and turns to walk away. As Ray watches Mirabelle run into Jeremy's loving arms, he remarks on how he feels a loss although he purposefully kept Mirabelle at arm's length so that when they broke up it would not hurt him, which it inevitably does.
Cast
- Claire DanesClaire DanesClaire Catherine Danes is an American actress of television, stage and film. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in...
as Mirabelle Buttersfield - Steve MartinSteve MartinStephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
as Ray Porter - Jason SchwartzmanJason SchwartzmanJason Francesco Schwartzman is an American actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Hollywood films Rushmore, Spun, I Heart Huckabees, Shopgirl, Marie Antoinette, The Darjeeling Limited, Funny People, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World...
as Jeremy - Bridgette Wilson-SamprasBridgette WilsonBridgette Leann Wilson-Sampras is an American actress, singer and model. A Miss Teen USA in 1990, Wilson holds several acting roles in television and movies, including the role of Veronica Vaughn in the movie Billy Madison, the role of Elsa Shivers in the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer, and...
as Lisa Cramer - Sam BottomsSam BottomsSamuel John "Sam" Bottoms was an American actor and producer.-Personal life:Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the third son of James "Bud" Bottoms and Betty , both of whom survive him...
as Dan Buttersfield - Frances ConroyFrances ConroyFrances Conroy is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth, the matriarch of the Fisher family, on Six Feet Under, which earned her a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.-Early life:...
as Charlotte Buttersfield - Rebecca PidgeonRebecca PidgeonRebecca Pidgeon is a British actress and singer-songwriter. She has maintained a recording career while also acting on stage and in feature films. She is married to the American writer and director David Mamet.-Early life:...
as Christie Richards - Samantha SheltonSamantha SheltonSamantha Sky Shelton is an American actress and singer.-Early life:Samantha Shelton was born in Los Angeles, California, to director Christopher and Carol Stromme. She has three older sisters, Koren, Erin and fellow actress Marley Shelton...
as Loki - Gina Doctor as Del Ray
- Clyde KusatsuClyde KusatsuClyde Kusatsu is a U.S. actor.Kusatsu was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he attended ʻIolani School. Kusatsu began acting in Honolulu summer stock, and after studying theatre at Northwestern University, started to make his mark on the small screen in the mid-1970s...
as Mr. Agasa - Romy RosemontRomy RosemontRomy Rosemont is a television actress who has appeared in multiple TV series, including Shark, Grey's Anatomy, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Prison Break and Private Practice. She got her break in 2010, playing Carole Hudson in the musical series Glee...
as Loan officer - Joshua Snyder as Trey Bryan
- Rachel NicholsRachel Nichols (actress)Rachel Emily Nichols is an American actress and model. Nichols began modeling while attending Columbia University in New York City in the late 1990s...
as Trey's girlfriend - Shane Edelman as Chet
Production notes
In Steve MartinSteve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
's original novella, Mirabelle was employed by Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus, formerly Neiman-Marcus, is a luxury specialty retail department store operated by the Neiman Marcus Group in the United States. The company is headquartered in the One Marcus Square building in Downtown Dallas, Texas, and competes with other department stores such as Saks Fifth...
. According to Evolution of a Novella: The Making of Shopgirl, a bonus feature on the DVD release, Saks Fifth Avenue actively pursued participation in the film by presenting a proposal to the producers and director and promising full cooperation with filming schedules. The gloves in the counter are not from Saks, but a boutique in Toronto, where some of the film was shot.
According to Martin's book Born Standing Up
Born Standing Up
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life is a memoir, released November 20, 2007, by Steve Martin, an American author, actor, comedian, executive producer, playwright and screenwriter...
, there are many parallels to Martin's own life. Early in his career, he lost a girlfriend to an older, suave gentleman resembling Ray Porter, real-life Mason Williams
Mason Williams
Mason Williams is an American guitarist and composer, best known for his guitar instrumental "Classical Gas". He is also a comedy writer, known for his writing on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and Saturday Night Live...
. Williams had a house that matches the description of Ray Porter's, it overlooked Los Angeles from roughly the same vantage point and the descriptions of the two houses are the same. Williams was an actuary at one point, whereas Porter was a logician. Martin and Williams both vied for the attention of a girlfriend, Nina. The relationship ended when Martin, much like the Schwartzman character, goes on a cross country tour as a roadie. These parallels make the novella somewhat autobiographical.
In addition, character Mirabelle is partially based on artist Allyson Hollingsworth who was a consultant to the movie, and who had a relationship with Martin in the 90s. Photographs and drawings attributed to Mirabelle in the movie are by Hollingsworth.
Martin had Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
in mind for the role of Ray Porter at the time he was writing the screenplay, but director Anand Tucker felt that Martin was so close to the material and had such a strong understanding of the character that Martin should play the part himself. After auditioning numerous actresses, he knew Claire Danes
Claire Danes
Claire Catherine Danes is an American actress of television, stage and film. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in...
was perfect for the role of Mirabelle as soon as she began reading lines with Martin. He found Jeremy much more difficult to cast, and remembered Jason Schwartzman
Jason Schwartzman
Jason Francesco Schwartzman is an American actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Hollywood films Rushmore, Spun, I Heart Huckabees, Shopgirl, Marie Antoinette, The Darjeeling Limited, Funny People, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World...
(but not his name) from his performance in Rushmore
Rushmore (film)
Rushmore is a 1998 comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson about an eccentric teenager named Max Fischer , his friendship with rich industrialist Herman Blume , and their mutual love for elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross . The film was co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson...
only two weeks before filming was scheduled to begin.
The apartment building used for Mirabelle's residence is located at 1630 Griffith Park Boulevard in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
The songs "Lily & Parrots," "Carry Me Ohio," and "Make Like Paper" were written and performed by Mark Kozelek
Mark Kozelek
Mark Kozelek is an American singer/songwriter Producer and frontman of Sun Kil Moon and Red House Painters.-History:...
. Tucker remembered him from his appearance in Almost Famous
Almost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
and cast him as the lead singer of Hot Tears. Both "Carry Me Ohio" and "Lily and Parrots" were tracks on Ghosts of the Great Highway, the first CD released by Kozelek's real-life band Sun Kil Moon
Sun Kil Moon
Sun Kil Moon is a music project of singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek, best known for his previous band Red House Painters. Sun Kil Moon sees Kozelek undertake the writing, composing, singing, and guitar playing, accompanied by Tim Mooney and Anthony Koutsos on drums, and Geoff Stanfield on bass...
. "Make Like Paper" was a track from "Songs for a Blue Guitar", an album by Kozelek's earlier band Red House Painters
Red House Painters
Red House Painters were an alternative rock group formed in 1989 in San Francisco, California by singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek.-History:While in Atlanta, Georgia, Ohio-born Kozelek became friends with Anthony Koutsos, a drummer. He then moved to San Francisco, California, adding guitarist Gorden...
.
The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2005. It was shown at the Chicago International Film Festival
Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America....
and the Austin Film Festival
Austin Film Festival
The Austin Film Festival was started in 1994 in Austin, Texas and is claimed to be "the first organization of its kind to focus on the writer’s unique creative contribution to the film and television industries"...
before going into limited release in the US.
The film grossed $10,284,523 in the US and $1,303,682 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $11,588,205.
Critical reception
At Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film has 87 "Fresh" and 54 "Rotten" reviews, for an average rating of 6.4 out of 10, and is rated a 62 (based on 37 reviews) at Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
In his review in the New York Times, A.O. Scott called the film "elegant and exquisitely tailored . . . both funny and sweetly sad" and added, "[It] is a resolutely small movie, finely made and perhaps a bit fragile. Under the pressure of too much thought, it might buckle and splinter; the characters might look flimsy, their comings and goings too neatly engineered, their lovability assumed rather than proven. And it's true that none of them are perfect. From where I sit, though, the film they inhabit comes pretty close."
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...
of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
described it as "a film of wisdom, emotional subtlety and power . . . directed with a rare combination of delicacy and decisiveness."
In Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, Joe Leydon observed, "Martin hits all the right notes while subtly conveying both the appealing sophistication and the purposeful reserve of Ray. But he cannot entirely avoid being overshadowed by Dane's endearingly vulnerable, emotionally multifaceted and fearlessly open performance. (In a few scenes, she appears so achingly luminescent it's almost heartbreaking to watch her.) The two stars bring out the very best in each other, particularly in a poignant final scene."
Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said the film is "like Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
for the upper-middle-brow business class flier. Which isn't to say it's bad. On the contrary, it's smart, spare, elegant and understated . . . Danes can fill a scene with one wounded glance, and her body language alone conveys a richness of character that makes an otherwise not very expressive character mesmerizing."
In Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
rated it three out of a possible four stars and commented, "The May–December thing worked in Lost in Translation
Lost in Translation (film)
Lost in Translation is a 2003 American film written and directed by Sofia Coppola; her second feature film after The Virgin Suicides and it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson...
and it works here, thanks to the perceptive and gracefully romantic script that Martin has adapted from his novella. This is not the wild-and-crazy Martin of Bringing Down the House
Bringing Down the House (film)
Bringing Down the House is a 2003 American romantic comedy film, written by Jason Filardi and directed by Adam Shankman. The film stars Steve Martin and Queen Latifah.-Plot:...
, this is the Martin who writes for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
with erudition and wit."
Steve Persall of the St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
graded the film C and called it "too slight to be considered a movie yet padded enough to pose as a feature-length work . . . The blessing and curse of cinema is its ability to compress ideas into simple images. When the ideas are this simple, cinema crushes them to dullness. Mirabelle's unremarkable life simply doesn't deserve big screen treatment. Any author other than a Hollywood favorite like Martin likely wouldn't get it done."
In New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
, Ken Tucker stated, "The challenge of the movie consists of making you believe that these two people, separated by age and status, could fall in love. Shopgirl succeeds in this with a confidence so sure and serene that you feel through much of the movie as though you’re listening to a fairy tale, an effect enhanced by the voice-over narration provided in soothing tones by Martin-as-Ray."
Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
said, "A serene luminescence surrounds Claire Danes [who] - reduced of late to action drivel (Terminator 3) or bit roles (The Hours
The Hours (film)
The Hours is a 2002 drama film directed by Stephen Daldry, and starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris. The screenplay by David Hare is based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham....
) — finally fulfills the potent promise of her mid-'90s TV series My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life is an American teen drama television series created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. It originally aired on ABC from August 25, 1994, to January 26, 1995 and was distributed by The Bedford Falls Company with ABC Productions. Set at the...
. Los Angeles doesn't look half-bad, either. When director Anand Tucker isn't training his camera on the jewel-like traffic lights below or the sparkling cosmos above, he portrays the City of Angels as a haven of spare elegance and urbane stylishness, as if it were Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
but with better weather and inviting outdoor pools. But save for savoring Danes and an L.A. cleansed of gaudy excess, there is little that is truly novel about Shopgirl . . . The film ultimately lets Mirabelle down and leaves the viewer dissatisfied. A Lost in Translation
Lost in Translation (film)
Lost in Translation is a 2003 American film written and directed by Sofia Coppola; her second feature film after The Virgin Suicides and it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson...
drained of its wryly observed humor, Shopgirl is worth a browse. But it isn't always easy to buy."
Awards
- Satellite Award for Best Picture - Musical or ComedySatellite Award for Best Picture - Musical or ComedyThe Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy is one of the annual awards given to motion pictures by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :- 2000s :- 2010s :...
- NOMINATED - Satellite Award for Best Adapted ScreenplaySatellite Award for Best Adapted ScreenplayThe Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is an annual award given by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :- 2000s :- 2010s :...
- NOMINATED - Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or ComedySatellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or ComedyThe Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy is one the Satellite Awards, given annually by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :- 2000s :- 2010–2019 :...
(Claire Danes) - NOMINATED - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion PictureSatellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion PictureThe Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the annual Satellite Awards given by the International Press Academy.-Drama :2000: Bruce Greenwood – Thirteen Days*Jeff Bridges – The Contender as Jackson Evans...
(Jason Schwartzman) - NOMINATED - Costume Designers Guild Award for Best Costume Design - Contemporary FilmCostume Designers Guild Award for Best Costume Design - Contemporary FilmThe Costume Designers Guild Award for Excellence in Costume Design for a Contemporary Film was awarded for the first time in 2000, honouring 1999 filmmaking....
(Nancy Steiner) - NOMINATED