Confessions of a Shopaholic Movie Review
“Dressing is like any worthwhile endeavour. It is an art, but also a challenge.”
While I had some mending time from a root canal I watched Confession of a Shopaholic. This movie is loosely based on the successful book series of the same name by Sophie Kinsella. I haven’t read the books but I expect like most movies loosely based on books the books are better.
Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a young journalist working for a home and garden magazine. Her career dream is to land a job with the hottest fashion magazine, in this case, Alette; named after fashion queen Alette Naylor (Kristin Scott Thomas).
As a child Rebecca learned early that there were two kinds of prices. “Real Prices” which are for sparkly things with a short shelf life and “Mom Prices” which are indestructible brown things. Like many girls Rebecca preferred real. Her quest for top dollar has resulted in twelve credit cards, $16, 1262.70 in debt, and a very bad credit rating. Her credit is so bad she is even hiding (literally) from a debt collector whose mission is to ruin her life.
Rebecca is feeling lucky because an interview at Alette is eminent. But on her way she is distracted by talking mannequins trying to lure her into stores. She almost misses her interview trying to come up with money to pay for the perfect green scarf she’s convinced herself she needs for the interview. A handsome stranger, politely annoyed, gives her the twenty dollars she needs just to get her out between him and the hotdog he’s trying to get to.
The dream job turns out to be filled internally. The stereotypical gay receptionist takes pity on her and lets her know about a financial magazine (that is owned by the same company) is interviewing; “once you’re in you’re in”. The interview turns out to be disastrous not because she is a bad example for financial strength but because the interviewer turns out to be Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy), the cute guy who took pity on her earlier so she could buy the green scarf. And she can’t stop lying.
After a drunken letter writing campaign Rebecca actually ends up writing for them under the guise of “the girl with the green scarf” because she can speak in a voice that women her age can understand. She ends up becoming insanely popular with her new found popularity opening doors for her but not everyone is as happy as she is about her success.
Confessions of a Shopaholic is an incredibly cute film; made so by Isla Fisher who’s interpretation of her character is so gosh-darn-cute despite being a chronic liar. Fisher is aided by witty writing which produces many quotes that will make you nod in agreement (“Underwear is a basic human right”) or at least make you chuckle (“A man won’t treat you as well as a store and you can’t return him seven days later”). John Goodman and Joan Cusack, funny people in their own right, guest star as Rebecca’s thrifty parents were a bit underused — in this film they are definitely back story.
Confessions of a Shopaholic isn’t a roll in the isles kind of movie but it is amusing and the pace moves along quickly — before I knew it the movie was over and tied up neatly in a little bow. While the movie starts off making fun of a psychiatric disorder and some of the people who suffer with it, it redeems itself by the end. I recommend seeing it just for the fun of it.
Here’s the trailer:
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Topic Links
* Confessions of a Shopaholic movie is available from Amazon
* Get your own Confessions of a Shopaholic book series from Amazon
I thought it was a cute movie, but like the book better. Isla Fisher is super cute though.