I started reading Steve Martin’s ‘Shopgirl’ Saturday night, and although I’ve not finished it, I did see the movie which thus far has tracked the written story very closely, so I’m writing what amounts to a review.

This is notable for a couple reasons. First, I’m pretty sure it’s the first book (granted a novella in this case) I’ve read written by a movie star. Second, I’ve already seen the movie – it’s rare that I read a book after having seen the movie.

For some reason it just rarely happens. It’s probably because most of my reading has been of sci-fi and fantasy, and I’ve either read it already because it’s good, or if I haven’t, the movie made of it is so bad it thoroughly turns me off from the book (‘Eragon’ comes to mind as a recent example of the latter).

Anyhow, back to ‘Shopgirl.’

The movie was quite good. I think that Novella’s are a nice length narrative to be translated into a movie. You rarely have to cut much, if anything, out as you do with a novel, or pad it a bunch as you do with a short story. It starred Steve Martin (go figure) and Clair Danes (who I have always liked).

Ah, another tangent here…

Comic actors who ‘move on’ to do dramatic roles tend to irritate me, but they all do it. For example, Tom Hanks and Robin Williams, and more recently Steve Martin, Wil Smith, and Jim Carrey. Occasionally they sneak back and do a comedy every now and then, but more often than not it seems like they’ve just decided to go Oscar hunting (Hanks in particular reeked of this to me). I want to grab them and say, ‘I laughed my ass off at your comic roles, don’t do this!’

Some do manage it without becoming irritating though, and Martin is in this category for me.

So, right, ‘Shopgirl.’ Danes and Martin have a very good chemistry in the movie and otherwise both do an excellent job with their roles.

The movie is also narrated by Martin. The tone, which as I have discovered is well carried over from the book, is melancholy but engaging.

I was draw into Danes’ Mirabelle’s world with a combination of sympathy, curiosity and morbid fascination.

Martin’s deadpan cynicism about people’s unconscious motivations seems spot on to me the vast majority of times, and I think this is critical to how well the book captures the ennui of Mirabelle’s urban existence. (Something I think Martin manages nearly as well as one of my favorite authors, M. John Harrison.)

Both the movie and book have an easy flow to them, which also helps pull the reader/viewer in. It’s like an old friend gently and somewhat sadly recounting the story to you.

Me? I’ll almost always recommend the book over the movie (novelizations not included in this generalization), but, in the case of ‘Shopgirl,’ if you don’t have time for novella, the movie is very close and seems to be nearly as good. Either way, do take in one or the other.

Steve Martin, Clair Danes