I browsed around Borders tonight, trying to find something I never did find. Nevertheless, I did find a shortened version of the novel ShopGirl by Steve Martin. (Yes, that Steve Martin). I've had few movies take my breath away; this is one of them. I knew I had to have the book. Sadly, all Borders had was the "novella," a shortened version. This will not do. In the meantime, I found one of the quotes from the movie.
Ray and Mirabelle run into each other at an art gallery; Mirabelle is a featured up-and-coming artist in this particular art gallery. Each is on the arm of a new love. Ray and Mirabelle catch a moment alone, and exchange pleasantries. Ray apologizes for the way he treated Mirabelle, and she acknowledges his apology. They wish each other the best, and Mirabelle walks towards the waiting arms of her boyfriend, Jeremy. And Ray watches them. And the viewer sees this flicker come across his face as he gazes at Mirabelle...
As Ray Porter watches his 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....
This scene is potentially heartbreaking, and, I am afraid, the great, deep, gaping caveat; we cannot truly love in pieces. We cannot (or should not, rather) only take that which satisfies us, and leave the rest out there wandering around, and then wonder boldly why our decision hurt so badly. Because, you see, weaknesses and vulnerability long for love, too. It is so, so very easy to take in our minds that which we desire to see, and so very tempting to give up on the rest... isn't it?
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