How not to get it together

An adaptation of Steve Martin's own novella and starring him as a rich middle-aged businessman unwilling to commit to the much younger girl (Claire Danes) who loves him, British director Anand Tucker's film promises more than it delivers.

The problem is a script which tells us next to nothing about the central character and acting from Martin that is as expressionless as that of Bill Murray in Broken Flowers - but far less effective.

Danes gives a genuinely good performance as the lonely girl, working in an exclusive shop, who recognises his vulnerability as well as her own. But why she never questions him about his refusal to have a lasting relationship is one of the puzzles of the film.

Supporting the two of them is Jason Schwartzman as the eccentrically uncertain young man with whom the girl has a fling before the businessman arrives on the scene.

By the end of Shopgirl, which is well enough made despite the hole in the middle where some sort of coherent psychology should have been placed, you are wondering what exactly it is that a pretty young thing from Vermont has to do to get laid by a half-decent man in LA.

That, of course, may be the point of the movie, but it's awful slow in coming.

Shopgirl
Cert: cert15