Claire Danes is young – and then again not.
Beneath the 26-year-old’s stylish poise and elegant threads runs a sweet undercurrent of the still-in-formation.
It’s this quality – which presents itself in person not as a waver of uncertainty so much as a pleasant fact – that makes Danes such a fine choice for the female lead in “Shopgirl.”
Danes has been on our radar for more than a decade now. And there’s nothing like a professional life to ripen a person fast. Yet Danes admitted with a mix of wonder and apprehension that she’s just six months into her first dog, a sprightly Schnoodle pup that sits in her lap one afternoon at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“It’s better for me than it is for him,” she said of her four-pawed roomie’s first press junket. “I didn’t know much about dogs, and I’m happy to learn about them.”
Youth and age are much the point in director Anand Tucker’s smartly bittersweet romance, adapted by Steve Martin from his novella, which opened in theaters Friday.
Mirabelle works the rather under-traveled glove counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in Los Angeles. A young woman from Vermont, hoping to find her artistic self a coast way, Mirabelle longs for love. It – or something closely resembling it – comes when she’s courted by two men.
Well, “man” may be too serious a term for the age-appropriate but boneheaded Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman).
Man, however, fits Ray Porter to a T.
Martin plays the well-heeled business man who romances Mirabelle with knowing touch and deep-pocket confidence that makes the young woman believe they have more of a future than perhaps they do.
Danes first demanded we watch her when she inhabited heart and teen-tortured soul the character Angela Chase on ABC’s short-lived coming-of-
age melodrama “My So-Called Life.” She sealed the deal as Juliet in Baz Lurhmann’s funky Shakespeare redux “Romeo + Juliet.”
Next month, she’ll appear as Sarah Jessica Parker’s sister in the holiday comedy “The Family Stone.” Last year, she starred opposite Billy Crudup in “Stage Beauty.” Opposites attracted. A romance ensued, followed by uncomfortable news coverage (at the time, the two were involved with others) and a current cohabitation.
Danes relationship to “Shopgirl” preceded its life as a movie. “I read the book when it first came out,” said Danes. “I consumed it in one sitting. I found it really subtle and poignant and true and aesthetically pleasing. So when the opportunity presented itself to make it into a movie, I knew this is something I would relish.”
Onscreen, Danes does something more complex and subtle than that. She makes Mirabelle’s transit the core evolution of the film. It’s not an overwhelming transformation – just one that feels true to the bumpy emotional work that happens in one’s mid-20s.
“She hasn’t figured out how to be a grown-up yet,” Danes said of Mirabelle. “She’s really naive and unsure how to become more fully realized and assertive about making art, finding the partner she’d like to grow with. She’s searching for a lot of answers. I think she finds a few of them.”
Is it strange holding the seance that is the press junket, revisiting a character once they’ve become a ghost of an experience?
“Kind of,” Danes replied. “But even then Mirabelle was kind of ephemeral.
“It’s sort of like meeting a friend you haven’t seen for a lot of years. Time just shrinks. But I can conjure her pretty fully. And I’m not making a movie right this second, so I feel like I’m not betraying this other person.
“I can very comfortably have a little tryst with Mirabelle.”
Film critic Lisa Kennedy can be reached at 303-820-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com.
