Shopgirl (4 Stars)

A few weeks ago, Shopgirl (2005) was on TV, and with nothing better to watch, the group of us bore with it while playing Scrabble on a lazy Sunday evening. At the time I ranked it at about 3 stars, maybe 3½. But I keep thinking about it. At the time, and for time to time ever since, I can’t shake how familiar all of it feels.

A lonely, and somewhat bored shopgirl begins a relationship with, well, someone like me, an aimless and somewhat naïve young man. And then she is courted by a much older man, who is very much the opposite. Wealthy, and the opposite of idealistic. Both are handsome, and gentle, but neither of them quite treat her as well as she perhaps deserves.

The three main performers in this film are excellent, as is the soundtrack. The film can feel like a music video at times, but it’s good music.

Generally I find Steve Martin’s works are better when he doesn’t try to be artsy, and just goes with what he does best, comedy. But a lot of what Martin says about these sorts of relationships made sense to me. It turns out I saw a little of myself in both male characters, something he no doubt needed to get out himself when he wrote the book. Sometimes we don’t realize how we truly feel about a woman until she’s gone.

I salute this film not as comedy or romance, (which it certainly has its share of too), but as art.

4 Stars: I wouldn’t watch it again, but it’s worth going out of your way to see once.