Confessions of a Shopaholic is probably the best film that could possibly be made with a title like - well - Confessions of Shopaholic.
It’s certainly better than its older sister Sex and the City because it approaches its subject with more life and zeal. Where Sex in the City was about a group of middle aged women trying to find meaning in a life that could never even begin to offer them any, Confessions of a Shopaholic’s Rebecca Bloomwood is more youthful and naive.
She knows that her obsessions with Gucci and Prada are childish and wrong, but darnit, she just can’t help herself. Sex and the City was a sort of Platonic tragedy; Confessions of a Shopaholic is a cotton candy fairytale.
Isla Fischer's Star Shines
This is in no small part due to its star, the Australian born Isla Fischer who some might remember stealing every scene she had in the Wedding Crashers.
Here, Fischer is nothing short of adorable and although she doesn’t have the class or charm of fellow leading lady Amy Adams, she has a youthful purity that is perfect for the role. In spite of all her self indulgence, her pathetic collection acquired through superfluous spending, and her unfailing obliviousness to anything outside of designer brands, the viewer gets to liking her.
Successful Savings Magazine
The irony is that Rebecca is flat broke after raking up credit card bills in excess of nine thousand big ones, is being diligently pursued by the aptly named collector Derek Smeath, and is recently out of a job after the magazine she works for goes belly up.
So, after an unlikely mix up while applying for the posh, upscale beauty magazine Alette (the name of the character played by Kristin Scott Thomas, whose composed snobbery never quite reaches it’s comedic potential), Rebecca finds herself writing for "Successful Saving" magazine about how people can avoid being in debt, while secretly dodging Smeath’s persistent encounters, attending shopaholic meetings and falling for her new boss Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy who displays the same charm here as he did in the delightful Jane Austen Book Club).
Sophie Kinsella
This material was adapted from a popular book of the same name, written by the British author Sophie Kinsella, whose prose are fluffy and simple and kind of just lay there on the page, merely carrying the reader from one episode to the next. That Kinsella managed to squeeze five books out of this character is testament to the truth that quantity and quality are not one-in-the-same after all.
A Jerry Bruckheimer Production
The film was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, whose solution to any cinematic problem is to throw money at it, which means it looks great.
However, it also suffers from a certain airiness, as it drifts aimlessly from one episode to the next, never really knowing what it wants to be or if it even really wants to be anything at all.
The scenes at the magazine are cute and sweet because Luke and Rebecca are likeable people who the audience know are perfect for each other long before either of them does, but the many shopping scenes and other superfluous fashion business are like chocolate bars: all indulgence with no satisfaction.
Smeath is merely a plot device who only appears whenever the film needs to give Rebecca her comeuppance, and a lot of good actors (John Goodman, Joan Cusack, John Lithgow, Lynn Redgrave) stand around the edges of the film waiting desperately for something to happen that never really does.
Verdict
As a fluffy meander, there are worse ways to spend one's time than with Confessions of a Shopaholic: it’s sweet and innocent, doesn’t have a brain in its head, and is contrived, but doesn’t mean anyone any harm.
It can’t be recommend it in any sort of good faith but there is a sinking suspicion that anyone who was a fan of the book or likes this kind of thing in general will be getting exactly the movie they wanted and deserve.
Time would be better spent with the touching, underrated film called Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.
Rating: 3 out of 5
