Amy Adams: An Object of Beauty, An Object of Brains

February 8, 2012

By Kristin Fritz

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Amy Adams/Photo: CC/Cranberries/Flickr

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Remember Shopgirl, that lovely, slim work of art taking the form of a novella by the comedian, writer, actor, and all-around-genius Steve Martin? Published more than ten years ago, it tells the story of Mirabelle, a young woman who works the glove counter at a Beverly Hills department store. In between her humdrum afternoons outfitting the digits of  Los Angeles’s well-helled, she finds herself caught in a love triangle between the quite wealthy, quite divorced, quite older Ray Porter and the more-appropriate-in-age Jeremy. In 2005, fledgling director Anand Tucker took the story to film and turned out a product deemed “elegantly and exquisitely tailored” by The New York Times. The film opened quietly, and though showcasing the massive talents of Steve Martin and Claire Danes, softly worked its way through theaters with little fanfare.

In 2010 Martin the writer brought us another novel, An Object of Beauty. Much to our delight, it was recently announced that Oscar-nominated actress Amy Adams will produce and star in the film adaptation of Martin’s best-seller. This book follows another young woman, one Lacey Yeager, gallerista. She’s charming, she’s educated, she’s ambitious and savvy — and she’s climbing her way with grace and with wit through the New York art world. Adams has showed us her goofy side (“Julie & Julia”), her tough-as-leather side (“The Fighter”), her darkly comedic side (“Sunshine Cleaning”), and even her churchy side (“Doubt”) over the last few years and she’s brilliantly executed all of these roles. It will be refreshing, now, to see Adams take on a part that’s a little higher heeled than usual for her, showcasing what we have full faith will be yet another character conquered by the star. The other role into which we’re excited to see Adams step is producer. She’ll be working aside co-producers Trudie Styler (wife of Sting and no stranger to producing) and Oscar-nominated Celine Rattray (“The Kids Are All Right”).

Our outlook? This movie has serious potential. Steve Martin’s writing coupled with Amy Adams’ acting, set in the New York City art scene has all of the makings of one big celebration of style and substance. It’s been decades since Martin last brought home one of the Big Three awards, with 1969′s Emmy for “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” Though there’s no word yet on who will be writing the screenplay, we’ve got our fingers crossed for the author and can’t help but daydream about the possibility of his potential entry — finally — into the Golden Globe or Oscar-winning realm. In the meantime, we’ll rest easy knowing that, in spite of who does the dirty work, we have “An Object of Beauty” on the silver screen to look forward to.

Tags: Amy Adams, An Object of Beauty, Anand Tucker, Celine Rattray, Claire Danes, Relationships, Shopgirl, Steve Martin, Trudie Styler