Our society is consumer driven and some people are so hot to have the latest and greatest fashion that they’re willing to compile mounds and mounds of debt. As our economy states to teeter, those same card companies willing to give you a greater credit line will start coming to look for you to pay it back.
Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) has two problems. The first is that she has an addiction to shopping that overcomes all others. The second is that she doesn’t have the bank account to indulge that addiction. Not that that’s stopping her since she has a wallet full of credit cards – maxed out credit cards that is.
Her best friend Suze (Krysten Ritter) is trying to help her overcome her addiction to fashion and maxed out credit cards but is having no luck and her parents Graham (John Goodman) and Jane (Joan Cusack) are examples of frugality that Rebecca took no advice from.
Rebecca’s dream is to write for Alette fashion magazine, run by the haughty Alette Naylor (Kristin Scott Thomas), but she arrives for the interview for the writing position to discover it had been filled internally. On the way to the interview, Rebecca had been tempted by a fashionable green scarf in a store window, but found herself short of funds and had was given $20 by a stranger at a hotdog stand.
The receptionist says that the way to get to Alette is to get a job at another magazine in the company and rise through the ranks so she interviews for a position in the magazine Successful Saving. When she interviews with the editor Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy), she recognizes him as the man from the hot dog stand who gave her $20. The interview doesn’t go well and she goes back to her job at an outdoors magazine to discover that it’s going out of business and the entire staff is unemployed.
She goes home and gets drunk with Suze. Suze comes up with the idea that she should write an article and mail it into Alette to show them what she can do and Rebecca decides to write a drunken, insulting letter to Brandon for the bad interview. However, in her drunken state she mixes up the envelopes and mails the snarly letter to Alette and the article to Successful Saving.
It does work out for her since she gets the job at Successful Saving, not that she knows a wit about finance, and makes a successful go of it until the collection agency looking for her rears its ugly head.
Confessions of a Shopaholic seems like a schizophrenic film. It could’ve been a biting satire on our obsession with fashion and shopping beyond our means. However, it’s peppered with such absurd comedic situations that it can’t seem to go that way. Those situations also didn’t seem to jibe with this reviewer with the real-life-horror of having all your credit cards maxed out and collection agencies hounding you.
Bloomwood’s lack of responsibility in this matter didn’t exactly endear her to me. Perhaps it’s my sex and lack of understanding of “shopaholics” or perhaps my own credit card balances brought it too close to home.
The film does have some funny moments, but I’d imagine that if you’re into fashion it’s going to mean more to you. I’d also hazard a guess that if you’re female that it will also mean more.
Alas that isn’t my gender assignment so although I did find the film to have some amusing bits it didn’t really ring true to me. If you’re familiar with the books by Sophie Kinsella (the film adapts the Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic [American title: Confessions of a Shopaholic] and Shopaholic Abroad [American title: Shopaholic takes Manhattan] you may also be mad that Bloomwood’s nationality has been changed from English to a more box office friendly American. Ilsa Fisher is bubbly and cute and she and Hugh Dancy make a cute couple. There’s a nice supporting cast here, but they’re woefully underused. Lynn Redgrave is given little to do for an actor of her stature, but a funny dénouement to her drunken role is found in the deleted scenes. Shop on.
Confessions of a Shopaholic is presented in 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1). Special features are in high definition unless noted. The film is given several making of featurettes under the banner “Behind the Fashion.” The first one is the 3 minute “Wardrobe by Patricia Field” has the fashion designer explaining how she dressed the characters.
The 2 minute “Temple of Shopping” goes to Bendel’s in Manhattan. The 1 minute “The Green Scarf” has Field discussing the titular accessory. The 2 minute “New York: Fashion Central” is about the city that never sleeps and its hold on fashion. The 2 minute “Sample Sale Madness” discusses the shooting of the chaotic sale scene. The 2 minute “Window Shopping” is about the living mannequins used several times in the film (Autons, if you ask me – but a bit more friendlier though no less creepy).
There are also 6 minutes of delete scenes, a 2 minute blooper reel [standard definition], and 8 minutes of music videos [standard definition]. Disc two contains a digital copy of the film that you can download to your PC or portable device (to watch while you’re out shopping no doubt).
Confessions of a Shopaholic is a sugary treat for you shopaholics out there, but others might get a cavity. It’s a film that had a chance for biting satire and went for over-the-top comedy. The main cast is cute and a nice couple, but the supporting cast is pretty much wasted. Shoppers might want to snatch it up, but others might wait for it to go on sale.
Confessions of a Shopaholic [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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