Shopgirl (2005) on Netflix
Mirabelle Buttersfield, an aspiring artist, sells evening gloves at a Beverly Hills department store. Two men enter her life: Jeremy, a graphic designer, and Ray Porter, a wealthy logician.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.3/1025,461 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes61%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mirabelle Buttersfield, raised in Vermont, moved to Los Angeles after college and sells women's evening gloves at a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills. She is an aspiring artist whose pay hardly covers her student loans, and she lives a solitary life with a chronic depression. Two men then take a romantic interest in her almost at once. Jeremy, a graphic designer for an amplifier manufacturer, meets her in a laundromat. Ray Porter, a wealthy divorced logician, buys gloves from her counter, sends them to her home with a dinner invitation, and she accepts.
Cast
- Gina Doctoras Del Rey
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Shopgirl (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- According to Martin's 2007 memoir Born Standing Up, Ray Porter has a real-life model: early in his career Martin lost a girlfriend to an older, suave gentleman, Mason Williams, whose house overlooked Los Angeles from roughly the same vantage point as Porter's. Williams was an actuary at one point, whereas Porter was a logician.
- Martin had Tom Hanks in mind for the role of Ray Porter at the time he was writing the screenplay, but director Anand Tucker felt that Martin was so close to the material, and understood the character so strongly, that he should play the part himself.
- Claire Danes convinced Martin she was right for Mirabelle as soon as she began reading lines with him, but Jeremy was much harder to cast: only two weeks before filming was scheduled to begin, Martin remembered Jason Schwartzman, though not his name, from his performance in Rushmore.
- Mirabelle is partly based on the artist Allyson Hollingsworth, who was a consultant for the film and had a relationship with Martin in the 1990s. The photographs and drawings attributed to Mirabelle in the film are by Hollingsworth.
- Saks Fifth Avenue did not simply lend its name: according to a bonus feature on the DVD release, the store actively pursued participation in the film, presenting a proposal to the producers and director and promising full cooperation with filming schedules.
