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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Shopgirl
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 49 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Romance
Written by: Steve Martin (also novel)
Directed by: Anand Tucker
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 21, 2005
DVD: April 25, 2006
Running Time: 104 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for some sexual content and brief languag
Starring Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman, Steve Martin, Bridgette Wilson, Sam Bottoms, Frances Conroy, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Joshua Snyder
Based on Steve Martin's bestselling novella, Shopgirl is a funny and poignant story of love in the modern age. The film catches a glimpse inside the lives of three very different people on diverse paths, but all in search of the same thing. (Touchstone Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Hilary and Jackie When Did You Last See Your Father?
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A film of wisdom, emotional subtlety and power.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A quiet, glistening love story - or not-quite-love story - adapted from Martin's novella of the same name, Shopgirl is such an atypical Hollywood affair that it's almost startling.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Like Truffaut's heaviest work, it's less interested in what brings people together than in what keeps them apart, and it achieves a painful truth you won't find in dating comedies.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
This is a special film whose delicate tone ranges from tender to astringent, with occasional side trips into sweet.
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Without the luminous Danes in the title role, Shopgirl would have the flair of an ordinary sales clerk.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Martin's script offers plenty of opportunities, but Martin the actor never takes advantage of them.
Read Full Review >Premiere Peter Debruge
Where "Elizabethtown" pretends to have the meaning of life, Shopgirl hones in on a few telling details, then allows audiences to fill in the rest.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
This is a smart, adult romance that rarely panders to clichés, and gives up the heady bliss of most such movies in favor of something bittersweet.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Even the film's missteps (the score, by Barrington Pheloung, is cringe-inducing) can't stop this meditation on love -- Martin calls it "Jane Austen for the twenty-first century" -- from melting into heartbreak.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Whether intentionally or not, Martin has given us something truly spooky: A full-fledged portrait of a hollow man.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Ken Tucker
Danes gives a marvelously quiet, poignant performance.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
"Hilary And Jackie" director Anand Tucker establishes and maintains an appropriately delicate tone, apart from the presence of cartoonish, jarring man-eater Bridgette Wilson, who seems to have wandered in from a much cruder comedy.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Displaying some fine performances -- including a lovely one by Claire Danes and a lively one by Jason Schwartzman -- the elegantly appointed Shopgirl certainly has the goods but it ultimately fails to make the sale.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
But the best of the story is that there isn't much--as such. A slice of living is put before us. Some things happen. That's all.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Mark Olsen
There's something refreshing about a film set in Los Angeles that gets its L.A.-ness right -- the difference in vibe between Silver Lake and the Hollywood Hills, or the types of people at CityWalk versus Saks. It is that sense of specificity, both geographic and emotional, that gives Shopgirl its pull.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
It's a minimalist almost-love story told with epic flourishes.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It's a movie, finally, that feels longer than its exquisitely brief source material, which is a crime of sorts.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
In their way, Mirabelle and Ray are the deracinated West Coast equivalents of a Woody Allen couple.
Read Full Review >USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
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.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Still manages to be a Steve Martin vanity project in ways that are fairly creepy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
On the page Shopgirl was a small but fine Chekhovian thing, coasting along on Martin's omniscient narration and witty prose...The movie version locates roughly half of what worked in the novella.
Read Full Review >Empire Caroline Westbrook
It's enjoyable and visually impressive, but this is a slender trifle of a film, one which charms you as you're watching it and then is all too quickly forgotten.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Melissa Levine
One of the most schizoid films in recent memory. It opens with crystalline originality, a shimmering comedy with meticulous timing and sharply drawn characters. Then it careens carelessly into syrup. How could he (Martin) not have noticed?
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
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.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
Unfolds as a series of slightly disjointed vignettes, padded with redundant voiceover and an oppressively histrionic score.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Without the saving grace of comedy, Martin's natural abrasiveness is off-putting, and he just doesn't have the stuff of a romantic lead.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
You keep expecting Shopgirl to get funny or sad or poignant; it never does. It just starts, then it's over.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Where the book was preciously and carefully crafted, the movie just feels precious.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
A glum meditation on isolation and romantic malaise.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Danes' smart, fun, radiant and very attractive Mirabelle actually undermines the premise of the book
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
In any case, the best performance is by Bridgette Wilson-Sampras as the conniving but peppy slut at the perfume counter. Her big scene--farcical, filthy, surprising--is also the best in the movie. Otherwise, Shopgirl is sadly vacuous, with a sadly vacuous center.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Meredith Brody
A romantic comedy with precious little romance and even less comedy.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The willowy Danes' rich, melancholy characterization is sown in a barren field of snippy attitude and too-cool posturing, and the film's disingenuous air of bittersweet chic becomes deeply tiresome long before it's over.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
There's so little sexual chemistry between the actors in this film that it seems like a kind of accomplishment. I've seen shows on C-SPAN that were hotter than this.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 49 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Justin H. gave it an8:
A very clear look into the workings of real relationships, both the good and the bad. The performances by Martin, Danes, and Shwartzman are terrific, especially since each of their roles are unique and stray from the typical drama or romantic comedy.
A Movie Critic gave it a4:
Steve Martin's one of my favorite comedic actors, so I was interested in seeing this serious work from him, which seemed to resemble one of my favorite movies, Lost in Translation. Unfortunately...this movie really didn't cut it. There's no chemistry here whatsoever, and while it was deliberate and part of the story, it didn't necessarily make for a compelling movie. Overall, it's an interesting movie and it had some nice ideas and was actually pretty realistic, yet it just didn't really do anything for me. It was more of a chick flick. It should have been both more romantic and more funny, and it was neither. And ugh....that musical score was COMPLETELY awful. Talk about overdone. They should have went with a more subdued and atmospheric effort like Lost in Translation, instead, it feels like a full symphony orchestra's following these characters around......ugh.
Art gave it an8:
Danes was transcendent. Martin was simpering, self-conscious, and unappealing -- but that's exactly as his character was *supposed* to be (read the novella!). Maribelle's coworker nearly ruins the mood with a inexplicable gratuitous "predatory blonde" cameo (a seriously slapstick caricature) near the end, but overall I thought this movie succeeded as a Lost in Translation kind of meditation.
Chad Shiira gave it an8:
In "Shopgirl", this May/December romance has the added kink of metaphysical incest, but don't let your hyper-awareness(or is it just my hyper-awareness?) about the author dating his own literary creation drive you to distraction. Claire Danes is simply incandescent as Mirabella, an allegedly lonely girl, who is, due to time compression, lonely for all of ten minutes. And then voila, two suitors. Although there are way too many shots of Ray(Steve Martin) in deep thought(we get it, we get it; furrowed eyebrows signifies self-consciousness about class disparity), your heart will break and your heart will soar too, because Martin and Danes, bring it.
Ben H. gave it a0:
Horrible movie. It was slow, pointless, and boring. How many times do I need to see Claire Dane's character shave her legs in this movie? I was confused watching the movie and I am still confused how anyone in their right mind could have enjoyed it. Wow. Honestly, I can say this is the worst movie I have ever seen in my whole life. Avoid it all costs. I still can't even believe I wasted my time on this crap.
David W. gave it a5:
Shopgirl should have be titled Flopgirl. It flops because its the exact opposite of a movie. Martin is the hero yet he doesn't win anything. Maribelle is a cows name. In fact she stands there albeit gorgeously just like a cow. She is grazing through life. The other male character is just a flop. Someone told Martin that good writing requires character development so he made Jason's character change from idiotic to stupid. The only reason people men will like this movie is becasue of Claires nude scene. The only reason it could be described as beautiful is the exquisite musical score. Martin should have made a sound track not a movie.
Dan C. gave it a6:
Not very good, except for Claire Danes, who shines in the title role. Jason Schwartzman also has definite presence on screen. But the writing is poor, especially the older character portrayed by Steve Martin. I can only assume the fault is his in the novella that serves as the source. Martin's character is at once boringly benign, even uncertain, and yet lacks conscience (or any apparent coherent motivation, for that matter). A weak, weak cop-out of a character, and not because he's unlikable, but because he's not believable.
