Confessions of a Shopaholic is a movie plagued by bad timing. Jerry Bruckheimer, uber-action movie producer, shepherded this frothy romantic film, and Valentine's weekend probably seemed like the perfect time to release this film. What he couldn't have known is that our economy would go into collapse and excessive shopping would seem, well, excessive. Nearly every reviewer of this film has taken that tack, using a movie review as an excuse to write an essay on the evils of our economy and over consumption, even bringing up films of the Depression as examples.
Well, yes, there were The Grapes of Wrath and so on in the 30's, but there were also films full of tuxedos, silk dresses and beautiful women dripping with diamonds. Fred Astaire or Philadelphia Story, anyone? People in the 30's wanted to escape at the movies, and this weekend, so did I.
I love the chick lit books of Sophie Kinsella. Rebecca Bloomwood is her heroine for a series of Shopaholic books, and this movie is a combination of the first two. Isla Fisher is an amazing comidienne and there is lots of crazy physical slapstick in the movie. People have compared Isla to Lucille Ball, and not just because of the red hair. She is amazing, and you can't help but adore her, as does Luke Brandon played by Hugh Dancy. Dancy doesn't have a ton to do in this movie as her straight man, but yowza, there is one particular dance scene that had me on the floor laughing.
And that's what this movie is all about. I laughed, and laughed out loud hard, not just chuckling silently. It is damned funny, and Rebecca ends up redeeming herself. She gets herself out of her mess, and is not rescued by her parents (John Goodman and Joan Cusack) or Luke.
I saw this movie in one of the largest theaters at my cineplex that had lots of empty seats, and you could tell that Bruckheimer thought this would be a blockbuster. It ended up the 5th movie for the weekend in box office, but if it had come out a year ago, probably would have been much bigger.
As Owen Gleiberman put it in his raving EW Review:
From its talking storewindow mannequins to its sneaky debauched heroine, the movie is romantic-comedy fizz, but it's fizz that bubbles like champagne.
I give Confessions of a Shopaholic 3 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and think Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy were terrific. Can't wait to see what Isla Fisher does next. She is a comedic gem! All I can tell you is that her baby with Sacha Baron Cohen has quite the comedic genes!
