Based on Steve Martin’s novella of the same name, Shopgirl is an airy tale of Los Angeles romance told through the eyes of Mirabelle Buttersworth (Claire Danes). A perfectly frumpy name for a perfectly awkward girl, Mirabelle left her home in Vermont to pursue a career in art, only to find herself trapped behind the glove counter at the Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue. She wafts her way through existence with a steady stream of anti-depressants and her cat, waiting in her drab apartment for someone to rescue her.

Enter the uber-wealthy businessman Ray Porter and the slacker-chic amp salesman Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), for a simultaneous dosage of the attention Mirabelle has been craving for so long. What ensues is somewhat standard romantic comedy fare, but in the hands of director Anand Tucker (Hilary ‘ Jackie), Shopgirl transcends the bland and becomes something else.

As Ray and Mirabelle dip their toes further and further into a relationship, it seems Mirabelle’s problems have been solved: Her student loans are paid off, she has fancy clothes and is taking a more aggressive stab at her artwork. Sure, they might be shallow problems, but like the rest of the movie, which is very much surface-level on the whole, we fully give ourselves in to what quickly develops into a subconscious fairytale.

Shot by Peter Suschitzky (A History of Violence), the film resembles a product a Saks customer might peruse en route to one of the store’s fancier and more luxurious departments. Indeed, many of the film’s shots are composed around a single spotlight, typically focused on Mirabelle, indicating that she, too, is another in a series of acquisitions for the commitment-phobic Ray.

What remains is neither life altering nor groan inducing. More amusement than main course, Shopgirl is a decadent teaspoon of foam – here one minute, gone the next – immediately satisfying with a lingering melancholy because it has come and gone too soon. Shallow or not, our hearts sigh.