Review of Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) by Angela A — 15 Apr 2010

I have to give credit where credit is due: Confessions of a Shopaholic does have a few engaging moments of comedic credibility, unfortunately not enough to provide the film with a very high interest rate.

Confessions of a Shopaholic stars the perky Isla Fisher as Rebecca Bloomwood, a full-time magazine writer who also moonlights and daylights as a full-time shopaholic. Ms. Bloomwood persistently shops and has run her credit card balances to astronomical rates. She inadvertently gets hired to work as a journalist in, out of all places, a financial magazine. She starts writing columns in the financial magazine on the nightmares of commercial manipulation and consumer zaniness. Yes! That is realism at its best! Isn't this great country or what? Oh wait, memo to self: this is a movie!

Rebecca's personal list includes: a humble yet rich editor boss whom she falls for, a best friend/roommate who tries to control her shopamanian ways, and parents who want to pursue their R.V. road trip dreams. Eventually and rather predictably, Rebecca gets herself in to several hot water scenarios caused by her consumerism and persistent blasphemy therefore leading her to a predictable self-realization process.

Director P.J. Hogan's stereotypical depictions of the consumer industry did not provide any originality, however, I must not discount the fact that I rather enjoyed how he directed Isla Fisher. She was the queen of this film with her zany but yet fervent performance and the only thing to save this film. Isla is sure to have her master thespian card renewed with many other comedic leading roles in the foreseeable future. Screenwriter Tracey Jackson's script was not of a "laugh-it-all blue light special" material, but commendable enough for a few laughs in return. Overall, I was left feeling rather disappointed; a feeling evoked similarly by the book itself.

Due to our nation's economic strife, Confessions of a Shopaholic is probably not be the ideal movie to watch these days but then again as was previously mentioned, it is only a movie. So this movieaholic will try to sell it to you at a moderate price: it is merely average.