Any old age

Update on previous post: Roeper & Ebert gave "Shop Girl" two thumbs up, and say the trailer is misleading, and it's a much better film than you'd expect. They also say it's not really about a woman choosing between two men. So I'll withhold my repulsion until I see it and can judge for myself.

I think the issue I have is built on the fact that Claire Danes usually plays "young" and doesn't look all that much older than high school Angela in "My So-Called Life," while Steve Martin has been silver-haired since his 30's and so always seems much older. So the actual age difference (34 years) seems more like 45.

I felt a similar weirdness when I saw Robert Downey Jr. & Patricia Clarkson playing a married couple in "Good Night & Good Luck" (review of that film to come.) Robert Downey Jr. looked sufficiently middle-aged (although in a cast that included a portly George Clooney, a dumpy Jeff Daniels, and a "where have you gone?" Tate Donovan, that is not much of an accomplishment.) But isn't she a lot older than he is? Because he's about my age, and she played the aunt of Peter Krause in "Six Feet Under," who's also about my age. Well, truth is stranger than fiction: Clarkson is only 6 years older than both Downey & Krause (who are both 40). Frances Conroy, who played Clarkson's sister in SFU is only 6 years older than her, so that's fine, but - that makes her only 12 years older than her on-screen son.