Shopgirl by Steve Martin is one of my favorite books of all time. It is short, and sweet, and funny, and sad, and really everything that you’d ever want in a book. The first time I read it I finished it in under 2 hours. Those are the kinds of books I like.
So understandably I was pretty excited when I saw that a movie was being made about this book. Even better, it was staring Claire Danes, and she is amazingly hot and easy to fall in love with. She seemed perfectly fitted to the role. And Jason Schwartzman and Steve Martin are both good too, I guess. But that’s really unimportant. Claire Danes. That’s what matters.
Well I saw the movie last night, and was actually disappointed. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really good either. It was just average. And average is a huge letdown when you’re expecting the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen.
There were really just a few problems that kept this movie from being better. It had voiceovers, which are always inappropriate. Worse, the voiceovers were parts from the book that explained what was going on in the characters heads. Normally this sort of thing is left to be assumed. Here it is just forced upon us. Then there was the fact that Steve Martin cast himself in one of the lead roles. Steve Martin is not an older, sophisticated man. It makes no sense that Claire Danes would fall for him. Cast someone hotter, please! And finally, it was too long. Too long and too slow. I could have reread the book in the same amount of time that it took me to watch the movie. And I probably would have enjoyed it more.
Overall it was decent. Claire Danes was in it, afterall. But it could have been so much better. I’d recommend just reading the book.