This item is currently not available. If you have this item,
Join and post it to share with others.
Any fan of Steve Martin's 2000 novella will enjoy this pitch-perfect adaptation, which glowingly captures the bittersweet tones of a May-September romance. Martin wrote the screenplay and stars as Ray Porter, a button-down 50-something executive who reaches out to a much younger woman as a Los Angeles playmate. The book and movie, though, are both primarily about Mirabelle (Claire Danes), a 20-something with a pile of promises, debt, and depression, as she fades away into a slow corner of Saks selling unneeded formal gloves. She's a wisp of a person, with a cat who doesn’t love her, and when she finds a suitor, it's Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), a scruffy artist who babbles on about speakers. When the gentlemanly Porter calls, his appearance in her life begins to make her whole. It also immediately sets her up for sadness--Ray thinks of Mirabella as a precious outlet for sex, while Mirabelle, very mistakenly, sees Ray as a potential lifelong mate. Martin deftly turns the novella's prose into dialogue, allowing the movie to feel full-bodied, and the film also works as a comedy, as we witness Jeremy's growth on the road with a rock band. Schwartzman would walk away with film if not for the perfectly cast leads: Martin does another smart turn away from his wild-and-crazy moniker, Danes has never been better in an Oscar-worthy performance, and Bridgette Wilson-Sampras aces her role as a hot-to-trot co-worker of Mirabelle's. Whoever's decision to have Martin be the omnipresent narrator, though, should be penalized, as it’s confusing to have him in two roles, and the information is pretty useless, even robbing the film of a final grace note.--Doug Thomas
Mediocre Given the premise of this film, I normally wouldn't have watched it. However, since it was recommended by a friend and since Steve Martin was involved, I figured I'd give it a shot. I found it to be pretty mediocre. Of the three main characters, only one of them, the Jeremy character, was very interesting to me and he had hardly any screen time. The story itself was kind of uninteresting and the storytelling itself was pretty lackluster. Martin's performance was mediocre at best and the relationship between him and Danes just didn't seem believable (much like Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment). None of the characters were developed all that well. So, it seemed like a conglomeration of semi-interesting ideas, none of which ever came to fruition.
A rainy day rental Mirabelle works at a fancy store Selling gloves - oh what a bore
A struggling artist, always broke Her social life's become a joke
She meets a guy at a Laundromat They meet and greet, and then they chat
On their first date she pays her way His telephone number gets chucked away
But then the loneliness sets in She lets him take her for a spin
Out of the blue comes this guy Ray A winning smile, and with cash to play
Completely swept right off her feet She's never had it quite so sweet
Wining, dining, fancy clothes And paying off the debt she owes
But then she takes stock of her life Some day she'd like to be a wife
You know she'll choose one or the other But neither one is worth the bother
The acting's great, the plot less so Just people going with the flow
For rainy days it's worth the rental Especially for the sentimental
Amanda Richards, July 5, 2006 If you don't own it, you need it! I don't own this movie yet but I certainly need it. I found Steve Martin amazingly profound and, of course, Claire Danes is a beautiful genius.
I read the book when it came out a few years ago, but being younger and less inspired, I wasn't impressed. When the movie came out, I went to see it immediately to see what I had missed in the book. Later, as a struggling artist and a few heartbreaks later, I realized I had missed the whole point.
The cinematography is amazing, Claire Danes is amazing, Steve Martin is refreshingly serious, and the overall movie is very touching. Definately a must have!
