Movie Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)

!! WARNING:  May contains spoilers !!

OVERALL: 7.5/10

Plot: 7/10
Cinematography: 6/10
Entertainment value: 8.5/10
Movie to wait for DVD:  Maybe
Rewatchability: Yes, LOL kind of movie
Movie to purchase:  Definitely a good addition to my comedy collection

I watched this movie with a bunch of my single friends on Valentines day.  I was in a line full of couples awaiting movie about shopping fanatics and a world of product manufacturing.  This movie had perfect timing for 2 specific reasons:  (1)  Valentines day for the women out there and  (2) the consumer based shopping culture and credit issues that ends up running our lives.  This movie was based on a novel by Madeleine Wickham who writes under the pseudonym Sophie Kinsella.  

There are very few movies that make me laugh out loud.  Really, laugh out loud.  This was one of those movies that was so silly, it was funny and charming that it made all of us laugh our hearts out.  Isla Fisher was certainly perfect for the role.  She lit up the sincere and cute fashionista that everyone couldn’t help but like.  Overall, this movie was really about women self improvement and chosign the morally correct decision at the end of the day.  

The story was about Rebecca Bloomfield (Isla Fisher), a cash poor editor who is obsessed with shopping the top brand name labels.  She dreamt of working at her favourite magazine but ends up working at a investment and financial magazine.  Her articles on the easy to read financial advice based on her shopping expertise made it easy to explain different financial issues in ‘people’ terms.  She wrote under the name “The girl with the green scarf” to which her articles became an international hit.  Her boss, Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy) fights for her in an ongoing battle to keep her away from criticism.  Her problems with credit allowed her to reflect on the problems and herself as the movie went on.  

Though the movie was decently good, it was, much like a lot of these types of comedies, completely predictable.  Her lows were foreseen, the embarassments were far fetched and the ‘losing everything’ and ‘gaining it all back again’ type movies annoy me.  Don’t get me wrong, it was totally to be expected.  I never imagined that this would have been different.  Hoped it would have been.

Isla Fisher (Definitely, Maybe) and Hugh Dancy (Jane Austin Book Club) made a compelling and wonderful cast together.  Go watch the movie.  It definitely a lighthearted film that will compell you to stop shopping!