Shop Girl (2005)

Directed by Anand Tucker
Written by Steve Martin

Cast
Claire Danes: Mirabelle
Steve Martin: Ray Parker
Jason Schwartzman: Jeremy

The story is simple. A young women works at the glove counter at Saks in Los Angeles. She is bored. She is from Vermont, which seems to be the explanation for any of her un-L.A. like behavior. She is also an unprolific but talented artist.

She meets Jeremy in the laundry mat. She meets Ray Parker at work. Each of them woos her. Jeremy in a awkward and unsentimental way. Ray in a smooth, older guy way--with nice dinners at restaurants and overnight visits to a designer-furnished personality-free house.

The heart of this movie is cold. The people move around each other but they never touch. The core of the film is Mirabelle's relationship with Ray Parker. They have different ideas of what the relationship means. It's a common trope in all films about relationships. He wants something with no expectations and sex. She wants...well, it's never stated. There is one scene where she describes the relationship to her girlfriends--it's the only time we know that she has a life outside her apartment, Ray's house and Saks--and she seems giggly and excited about the potential of the new romance. But that's it. The rest of the time she says nothing, expects nothing from Ray and gladly accepts whatever he offers without asking for anything.

The film is about the way people don't connect. How sex ties them together, but only in an illusory way. It's an anomic, glum view of the world where real connections don't exist. The acting was fine, the film was slow and the message was vague. There is a happy ending but this is far from a happy film.