Forensics season has started and that means I won’t watch any sad movies until April, at the earliest. Had I known that Shopgirl was going to be so sad, I would have picked a test pattern to watch last night instead.
Shopgirl is based on Steve Martin’s novella of the same title. (Two women behind me last night were bickering over what the difference between a novel and a novella is. I thought it was just length, but apparently you have to be Italian to write a novella.) I read Martin’s short book about five years ago, and it was a nice little tale of a girl who is waiting for life to happen to her.
She meets two men within the same week. Jeremy is her age, but completely clueless as to how to treat women. Ray knows how to treat women (kind of) but is twice her age. Even though this film has a happy ending, I left the theater feeling empty and sad. I won’t tell you who she chooses, but I suppose the optimists who see this film recognize the idea that timing is everything. For my fellow pessimists who see this film, well, it’s just more proof that some guys can be pretty lame.
Come back next week for what I expect to be an enthusiastic review of “Good Night and Good Luck,” which is George Clooney’s take on Edward R. Murrow taking down Joseph McCarthy. I’m seeing it next Saturday, and am quite excited about it.
As a side note, I’m taking away comment privileges, because the jokers who post their self-serving advertisements as comments really irritate me. I will see if there is another way to allow members-only comments.
