Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)

411 Review
Based on the novels 'Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "Shopaholic Takes Manhattan" by Sophie Kinsella, this film is unabashed couture porn.

The film evacuates the novels of the little substance they had and amps up the focus on heterosexual romance (and yes! There's a wedding!)

Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is toiling away at a gardening magazine while daydreaming about Prada and a job at her dream magazine, Elle knockoff Alette. When she is not buying shoes, she is hiding her Visa bills under her bed.

Rebecca lives basically rent-free with her helpful but increasingly frustrated roomate Suze (a delightful Krysten Ritter) who is in the middle of planning a wedding (what would a movie marketed to women be without a Big White Wedding?). After too much tequila and a mix-up that results from it, Rebecca unexpectedly lands a job at Successful Savings magazine, which she takes because the helpful-gay (and what would a movie marketed to women by without a fairy godmother?) advises her it'll help her get a position at Alette.

Of course, her boss Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy) is impossibly handsome and charming and utterly taken with Rebecca. The lies on her resume begin to catch up with her and Rebecca must balance paying off her debt, attending Shopaholic support meetings, making Luke fall in love with her and her duties as maid of honor in Suze's wedding. There is an archnemesis (a beautiful, rail thin writer at Alette) and conflict (with Luke, with Suze, with the Finnish) and, of course, loving, patient parents who help remind Rebecca what is really important in life (and its not another designer handbag).

101 Review
Fisher is absolutely charming and a pleasure to watch. It is refreshing to see a female actor who is allowed to do physical comedy (and Fisher does it extremely well), and this film takes full advantage of Fisher's talent for both verbal and physical comedy.

This film is funny with a solid cast, excellent pacing and a you-go-girl spirit that had the mostly female audience laughing loudly and cheering on the charming Fisher. Films marketed to women are always fighting a battle to be judged fairly since any film that features shopping instead of explosions and conversations over martinis at a swank lounge instead of conversations over pints at a pub must be frivolous. Confessions of a Shopaholic comes close to moving past frivolity, but then decides to condescend to its audience. It would be enough to follow the charming Fisher as she tries to land her dream job and insists on speaking about financial issues in a feminized language but, once again, the producers’ fear overtakes the narrative and we are served frothy romance and a white wedding instead of a working girl dramedy that respects its audience.