Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Perfect closure

Maggie says:
I adored Shopgirl when the Ms and I saw it last year, and just got a chance to rewatch it on DVD. I love this movie... I loved how it continued to settle into me slowly, days after I first saw it. The passage at the end, narrated by Steve Martin, struck me as wise and beautiful then, and tonight it hit me even more powerfully.


Here's to beautiful movie closure and films that end perfectly:

As Ray Porter watches Mirabelle walk away, he feels a loss. How is it possible, he thinks, to miss a woman whom he kept at a distance, so that when she was gone he would not miss her? Only then does he realize that wanting part of her, and not all of her, had hurt them both, and how he cannot justify his actions, except that, well, it was life.

While I'm at it, everyone should read the novella, too. Steve Martin really surprised and moved me with this one; it's beautifully, internally written and unexpectedly insightful.

1 Comments:

Blogger mjae said...

Last night, someone was talking about emotional truth in novels. I think this movie is the truest thing I've seen in a long time.

It's made its way onto my top 20 for sure.

Thanks for the quote. I remember hearing it the first time and really tearing up.

8:49 AM  

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