I planned to write a review of “Confessions of a Shopaholic” the first time I saw it. However, time got away from me and memories of the movie fell like grains of sand in an hourglass…or something like that. Whatever happened, I didn’t feel like I could write the review the movie deserved anymore. But that’s what makes a movie’s DVD release so exciting – a portion of the hype returns for just a little bit to get you excited enough to go out and buy that movie, or at least check it out. And like a marketer’s true dream consumer, that’s exactly what I did.
When I went into my first viewing I expected to come out with the stale taste of predictable chick flick in my mouth with sarcastic comments flying. And yet, I was pleasantly surprised. I knew that Isla Fisher, in the lead role of Rebecca, would be great. She proved that in “Wedding Crashers” and she’s married to Sacha Baron Cohen – how could she not be hilarious? I just worried that the material, based on a chick-lit book wouldn’t measure up. But watching the movie turned out to be akin to getting a double scoop waffle cone at the ice cream parlor: I felt a little guilty walking in, but once I saw all the flavors lined up and had the ice cream in my hand, that guilt disappeared and I just enjoyed myself.
The story follows Rebecca as she shops to her heart’s content for every unnecessary, furry, shiny, shimmery accessory she can get her hands on until she hears the D-word: Declined. From there, she finds a job to pay off her piles of debt writing for a financial magazine, “Successful Saving.” Is the irony lost on anyone? Anyone? There, Rebecca learns how to use her shopping prowess to give readers financial advice and, in the process (there is always an “in the process” with these kinds of movies, isn’t there?), she learns how to manage her own debt. As the audience, we learn that the hottest men work in financial publishing thanks to her dreamy boss played by Hugh Dancy.
While the movie is largely filled with scenes straight out of a Vogue fashion shoot or a fashionista’s dream sequence, there is heart to it, too. Rebecca has to hit rock bottom financially in order to figure out how to dig herself out. Though she does it in a rather unrealistic way, she does make the basic sacrifices required to stop her cycle of spending. Fisher’s physical comedy and total fearlessness to look a fool first make you cringe with embarrassment and then laugh until your stomach hurts. The movie isn’t without a little seriousness though. The most touching scene in this movie is a fight between Rebecca and her best friend that, shot handheld and containing so much emotion, could rival any dramatic independent film.
If you have to ask if the movie ends happily, I would respond, are the title letters written in hot pink? The answer is of course yes, too happily. But the predictable ending is just like the whipped cream on this ice cream cone of a movie: if you’re going to have ice cream in the first place, you might as well go all out. By the end of the movie, you’ve enjoyed yourself so much that you’re in no mood to be negative about any of its qualities really, and for someone like me, that’s one of the greatest effects a movie can have on you.
