"Shopgirl" ***1/2 (out of four): In an age of dumbed-down rom-coms, Steve Martin's old-fashioned romance is a rare treat (despite a nearly fatal voice-over narration) thanks in large part to a dazzling Claire Danes.
Former "wild 'n' crazy guy" Steve Martin has a romantic streak in him. With "Roxanne", "L.A. Story" and now "Shopgirl", Mr. Martin is injecting a much-needed intelligence into the romantic comedy genre.
Of late it seems in order to classify as a romantic comedy you need to bring down the level of humor to the scatological. I suppose "There's Something About Mary" can be thanked for that. If you want to create an old-fashioned romance, you need to set the film long ago and call Merchant-Ivory. In "Shopgirl", Mr. Martin confounds that problem by setting the film in his own version of L.A.
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You know, I can get past the fact ol' Steve went in a HUGE arc from The Jerk to Roxanne to Grand Canyon then to Father Of The Bride and then to Bowfinger... but this? Even his pomp is getting in the way of his story telling!
We've all sat bored through Martin Mull comedy bits before, and they're both from the same old school training of lowbrow/highbrow humor, essentially smashing a pie into the face of the rich guy on the street corner and see how he reacts to being human like everyone else. Yeah, yeah, yeah...
Now this movie does NOT entice me at ALL to go see it. Nope.
So there.