Shopgirl (2005)reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
A film adaptation of Martin's novella, same title, "Shopgirl" is about a complex love triangle between a bored sales girl, played by Claire Daines (The Family Stone), a wealthy businessman, played by Martin (Cheaper By the Dozen), and an aimless young man Jason Schwartzman (I Heart Huckabees). The movie's pacing was very odd and off beat. If you look for that in your film selections, you should enjoy this one. I thought the dialogue was pretty well written. There were plenty of scenes that were simply amusing with Martin's sharp dialogue writing. The most disturbing thing about this movie is having to accept Martin and Daines' characters having sex in it; nothing is shown, but you do get to see Claire Daines' naked butt. Unfortunately for me, most of Martin's scripts since 1995 go over my head, so I didn't quite enjoy this as much as other might. I did laugh a lot from the dialogue, so I did enjoy it, but the style and pace of the film was very odd. It also seemed to have some profound attachment to using color to express certain situations and I didn't quite grasp it all. Maybe with another viewing, I'd understand more of where Martin and director Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie) were going for. Benn - Where's the Humanity?
It's an odd movie, but then most of Steve Martin's writing since 1995 has been just that to me.