Reviews

The film is a victim of all the hype attached to it. For whatever reason enough people saw something special in it and a ground swell of enthusiasm propelled this film into hysterical popularity. Unfortunately there isn't enough substance to warrant the praise.

Gratuitous choppy editing, endless nausea-inducing skewed camera angles (the thing I hated most about the whole mess) and a rather too contrived plot are combined to produce only mildly entertaining results.

The performances by the young actors were uniformly stellar and that is where the praise should be directed.

Finally, where there's smoke - there's fire. For all Boyle's glib explanations of how well the kids were taken care of and how well paid they were the truth is they received far, far less than they should have based on their contribution. I'm surprised the movie-going public let the filmmakers get away with this.

It's great that their education is supposedly assured but considering the extraordinary success of the film and the wealth generated for the fat-cats in Hollywood and London these kids' lives NOW could have and should have been transformed. How on earth could they have been allowed to return to the slums most of them came from? It's real a shame.

Social issues aside, I was left unimpressed and numb at the end of the movie.

After reading the mostly glowing comments about this movie I decided to rent it despite some suspicions of TV movies. I should have followed my instincts.

I tried so hard to warm up to the movie and find merit in it but I just couldn't. The story never draws you in or rings true and the acting is perfunctory at best and laughable at worst. Everything in this production is amateurish.

Always a joy to watch, Mary McDonnell may be the only performer to escape this disaster without damaging her career or reputation. I won't even bother checking the name of the leading man - hopefully he's back doing commercials.

Even poor Vanessa Redgrave, whom I adore and respect, seemed to be channeling Katherine Hepburn all the time appearing as if she were really drugged in the home. Maybe she needed the money.

If I can save one person from wasting 100 minutes on this tripe I will feel vindicated.

I really wanted to like this movie, but found I liked it less and less while watching it and still less afterward.

The whole thing feels like a vanity project for Steve Martin. That would be fine if his performance and the story warranted such deluxe treatment, but unfortunately they don't. In a performance probably meant to be understated he fails to display any charisma or appeal, so for me the whole premise of an affair between him and Clare Danes is unlikely. Even his off-screen narrative is stiff and dull and not profound as I sensed it was meant to come across.

Clare Danes was lovely, and thanks to her engaging and touching performance I was able to remain somewhat interested. The misguided encounter between her coworker Lisa and Jeremy was a humorous high note but despite some other bright moments SHOPGIRL was a very dull affair.