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100A film of wisdom, emotional subtlety and power.
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88A tender and perceptive film.
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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.
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88A 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.
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80Elegant and exquisitely tailored.
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80This is a special film whose delicate tone ranges from tender to astringent, with occasional side trips into sweet.
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78Without the luminous Danes in the title role, Shopgirl would have the flair of an ordinary sales clerk.
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75Even 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.
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75This 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.
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75Where "Elizabethtown" pretends to have the meaning of life, Shopgirl hones in on a few telling details, then allows audiences to fill in the rest.
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75Whether intentionally or not, Martin has given us something truly spooky: A full-fledged portrait of a hollow man.
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75Martin's script offers plenty of opportunities, but Martin the actor never takes advantage of them.
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70Displaying 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.
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70Danes gives a marvelously quiet, poignant performance.
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70There'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.
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70"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.
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70It's smart, spare, elegant and understated.
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70It's a minimalist almost-love story told with epic flourishes.
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70But 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.
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67In their way, Mirabelle and Ray are the deracinated West Coast equivalents of a Woody Allen couple.
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67It's a movie, finally, that feels longer than its exquisitely brief source material, which is a crime of sorts.
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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.
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63The 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.
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63Still manages to be a Steve Martin vanity project in ways that are fairly creepy.
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60It'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.
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60Unfolds as a series of slightly disjointed vignettes, padded with redundant voiceover and an oppressively histrionic score.
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60One 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?
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60Martin 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.
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58Without the saving grace of comedy, Martin's natural abrasiveness is off-putting, and he just doesn't have the stuff of a romantic lead.
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50Where the book was preciously and carefully crafted, the movie just feels precious.
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50Danes' smart, fun, radiant and very attractive Mirabelle actually undermines the premise of the book
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50A glum meditation on isolation and romantic malaise.
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50You keep expecting Shopgirl to get funny or sad or poignant; it never does. It just starts, then it's over.
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40In 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.
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A romantic comedy with precious little romance and even less comedy.
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38The 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.
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30There'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.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 25 out of 39
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Mixed: 6 out of 39
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Negative: 8 out of 39
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BenH.0
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JustinH.8