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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, Dolby Digital (5.1); Dolby Surround Sound, Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary, Featurette, Spanish, French Subtitled
Based on Steve Martin's best-selling novella, and starring Golden Globe winner Claire Danes (Best Actress In A TV Series, My So-Called Life, 1994), Golden Globe nominee Steve Martin (Best Actor In A Motion Picture -- Comedy/Musical, Father of the Bride Part II, 1995), and Jason Schwartzman (Bewitched), Shopgirl is a disarmingly funny love story. Mirabelle, brilliantly played by Danes, is an aspiring artist working behind the glove counter at a Beverly Hills department store when she meets two very different men -- Jeremy (Schwartzman), a socially inept guy who doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and Ray (Martin) a wealthy entrepreneur who has the world at his feet. Filled with the mixed signals and missteps of a modern romance, Shopgirl is a fresh and witty, warm, and funny romantic comedy you can't help but fall in love with.
"Elegant and exquisitely tailored." A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"A film of wisdom, emotional subtlety and power." Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Editor's Note
In adapting his popular novella to the big screen, Steve Martin chooses director Anand Tucker (HILARY AND JACKIE), whose artful eye (along with the film's stunning costumes, dramatic score, and brilliant set design) brings the book's detailed characters beautifully to life. Recalling her breakout role of analytical Angela Chase on MY SO-CALLED LIFE, a luminously brunette Claire Danes plays Mirabelle Buttersfield, a serious young woman (and aspiring artist) from Vermont who has moved to Los Angeles with hopes that, out on the West Coast, her life will finally begin. But Mirabelle's job at the rarely visited glove department of Saks Fifth Avenue and her naturally reserved demeanor make it hard for her to find genuine connections in a place as isolating as L.A. It's with a mixture of her need for human interaction and her lowered expectations that Mirabelle reluctantly accepts the awkward advances of Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), a clueless but kind slob she meets at a laundromat. The opposite of romantic, Jeremy's initial attempts at wooing hardly cure Mirabelle of her loneliness, so when wealthy older man Ray Porter (Martin) asks Mirabelle out with grace and style, she agrees. What follows is a touching look at the disappointment, confusion, and heartbreak that accompanies unreciprocated love, with Martin's script showing particular insight into the experiences of its young female protagonist. In the end, the couple's age difference is of little importance, as the film's main intention is give Mirabelle some omniscient guidance (via Martin's voiceovers) in a time of growth. Through it all, she (like the film) counters reality with the knowledge (and hope) that true love can change everything. While chemically prone to depression, Mirabelle is also a dreamer, with the strong belief that things could be truly wonderful, if only they'd fall into place.
| Features | Evolution Of A Novella: The Making of Shopgirl Featurette | | Deleted Scenes | | Audio Commentary by director Anand Tucker | | Widescreen Presentation | | Audio: English Dolby Digital (5.1); Dolby Digital Surround | | Subtitles: French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Buena Vista |
| Release Date: 1/11/2008 |
| Running Time: 106 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 4013803 | | UPC: 00786936282986 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Available Subtitles: French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 5 -- "[Danes] gives her best performance yet....Peter Suschitzky's cinematography is cannily sleek." 11/03/2005 p.106Entertainment Weekly
"[With] the visual flourishes of an old-time glamorous Hollywood romance..." -- Grade: B- 10/28/2005 p.62 New York Times
"[Martin and Schwarzman] bring gallantry, farce and sweetness to this funny, sad, insightful movie." 10/28/2005 p.E29 USA Today
"A serene luminescence surrounds Claire Danes in SHOPGIRL." 10/21/2005 p.3E Premiere
"[The film] positively teems with good taste. A symphony about L.A., it is ordered and lush..." 06/01/2006 p.102 Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "Like a sexed-up LOST IN TRANSLATION, Anand Tucker's age-ain't-nothing-but-a-number film sweeps effortlessly across the LA skyline..." 07/01/2006 p.117 |
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