The great flaw of Confessions of a Shopaholic is in the last six letters of the title: Aholic.
Above all else, Confessions is a pedestrian romantic comedy of the mistaken-identity type. My favorite of the genre being The Secret of My Succe$s, a late ’80s Michael J. Fox vehicle in which he cons his way from the mailroom to the boardroom of a major corporation. All the while finding love and important life lessons along the way.
Such mindless fantasy can be fun but as I said: Aholic. Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a young writer toiling away at a small gardening magazine while dreaming of working for the top fashion magazine. Through a series of unlikely events, Rebecca ends up getting hired as a columnist at a personal finance magazine in the same publishing family as the desired fashion magazine. The irony of this, of course, is that her supposedly brilliant new boss, Luke (Hugh Dancy), is unable to tell that the woman he is talking to doesn’t know her APR from her MSRP. Such movies are built on stupid people being considered smart. The intended irony, though, is that Rebecca is the very last person in the world who should be giving personal financial advice.
She loves to shop. Window-display mannequins almost literally talk to her. While evading collection callers, she has to spread the purchase of a scarf over a half dozen credit cards.
But: Aholic. The character presented is not simply some semi-ditzy girl who doesn’t understand the way money works. There is no joke with her at the cash register saying, “How can I be broke, I still have check!” She panics when one of her dozen credit card bills comes in the mail. Her friends are well-trained in helping avoid collection agencies. Minutes after crying over a credit card bill, she is unable to resist a sale item and her habits lead her to do some pretty horrible things to her friends and family. In other words, she isn’t a person of bad habits, she is quite literally a shopaholic. And addiction isn’t particularly funny.
Sure, there are laughs in the movie and Isla Fisher (probably best known as the crazy sister in Wedding Crashers) carries things off about as well as possible. But every laugh is reduced by a core of pity for the character. A lot of reviews and commentary about this movie will ask about the appropriateness of the movie for the curent economic climate. That, to me, is mostly irrevelant as it is hard to see how this movie would have been funny two years ago either, if societal financial well-being makes true addiction funnier then that is a pretty sad commentary.
This isn’t to say that comedy and drama can’t coexist, though you aren’t going to find a whole lot of comedies out there dealing seriously with the issue of addiction where the addiction is pretty much the sole source of humor. It is to say, though, that it is a very difficult line to walk. Perhaps screenwriters Tracey Jackson, Tim Firth, and Kayla Alpert, along with director P.J. Hogan were unduly constrained by the source material in Sophie Kinsella’s popular series of novels, but they aren’t able to hold that line, and the wobbles early on, slowly intensifying until about 15 minutes before the conclusion, the movie melts down into full on (and heretofore unsupported) drama only to boomerang all the way back and wrap everything up in a romantic comedy bow.
Ignoring all of that and focusing on the romantic comedy part, things are a little bit better. Pedestrian as previously mentioned but likable. Isla Fisher is—as much as I hate to say it, because she looks gorgeous—at 32 a bit too old to be playing this character. No specific age is ever given, but a 10-year shopaholic habit in New York City should leave you with more than $16k in credit card debt, or at least farther along in her chosen career than Rebecca is. Otherwise, she brings flash to a character mostly surrounded by grey blobs.
Hugh Dancy is the brilliant (but apparently super-gullible) young editor who sees something special in Rebecca’s writing, and also falls in love with her. Too bad he’s incredibly boring; one can understand why he would fall for Rebecca, but nothing is ever shown indicating why she would fall for him—unless it is that she is just so desparate for validation (otherwise provided through shopping) that she goes for the first man who shows her any respect at all. Way romantic.
There are interesting recognizable names in bit parts. John Goodman and Joan Cusack play Rebecca’s frugal parents. John Lithgow isn’t given much to do but look smug as a publishing baron. Kristen Scott Thomas plays the Meryl Streep role of big-time fashion magazine editor. The other bright spot, as so often happens in these movies is not in the primary romantic couple but in the best friend. Krysten Ritter, as Rebecca’s best friend Suze, is the only character that handles the comedy-drama carrousel with any grace.
You’ll notice that nothing has been said about the myriad fashions and high end product placements in the movie. That is because you are reading a review written by a person who defines life success as inversely correlated to the amount of time spent shopping. I wouldn’t know a Gucci handbag from a Black & Decker belt sander. I have no idea if $120 for a Yves Saint Laurent (or whatever line) scarf is expensive or normal. If you want to know how that stuff plays I’ll save myself the embarrassment of trying to guess, and direct you to the review in Women’s Wear Daily.
It’s the doldrums of winter as far as movies go and there are worse options on the table than Confessions of a Shopaholic. Fisher is fun to watch as far as that goes and I can see young girls enjoying it for the fashion and shopping jokes while the addiction drama goes right over their heads. If nothing else, $10 for a ticket will be cheaper than $25 for the books.
- Confessions of a Shopaholic is a Touchstone Pictures release
- Wide theatrical release February 13, 2009
- Directed by P.J. Hogan
- Screenplay by Tracey Jackson, Tim Firth, and Kayla Alpert
- Starring: Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Krysten Ritter
- Rated PG for some mild language and thematic elements.
- Running time: 112 minutes
- Alex’s Rating: 4 out of 10.
