Hint of Oscar in Martin movie

Perceptive and bittersweet, Steve Martin’s new film, “Shopgirl” provides serious food for thought about life and love in the modern world.

Claire Danes is outstanding in the major role of her career as the shopgirl of the title. She works as a clerk in the elegant Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue. But she lives with her small-town values in a tiny L.A. apartment devoid of any luxury.

A goofy date with a local boy is the set up for what follows.

Steve Martin plays a wealthy and much older man who meets her as a customer at Saks. She becomes the willing object of his attention and desire with no clue of what is to come.

Events follow that are truly funny and melancholy in their own turn. Martin wrote the book and screenplay for this film with such insight and understanding that I suspect the plot must be drawn from his own experience.

His admiration and caring for the poor shopgirl is absolutely genuine. Martin explores every nuance of this complex relationship in a way that will touch a nerve in every viewer who’s had more than one “significant other” in his or her life.

Those who enjoyed “Lost In Translation” with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson will find much to appreciate here. With cinematography, music and acting worthy of Academy nominations, this film could be the quiet surprise of the Oscars.

* JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office.

20051104h1l6ugke(LA)