Buyer Beware
George W. Bush and Confessions of a Shopaholic agree: Go shopping! (Wait, donNt)
The Confessions of a Shopaholic we need right now would be a handheld doc featuring former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain sobbing into the camera and begging the American public to forgive him for purchasing a $35,000 commode. With its curious release date—the film is meant to be ValentineNs Day date fodder but ends up resonating more with the horrors of Friday the 13tH N Mdash;Confessions of a Shopaholic plays like both a supremely outmoded chick-lit adaptation and an outrageously obscene gesture as the economy continues to swallow up livelihoods, homes and hope.
Based on British writer Sophie KinsellaNs Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, the first two books in a seemingly endless series, Confessions the film moves the source materialNs setting from London to New York, with the Hearst Building serving as the promised land. Kinsella is essentially a Helen Fielding manquN; the movie is a wan imitation of The Devil Wears Prada and Sex N the City (both the TV show and the film, the latter of which already felt like a fossil when it opened last spring). KinsellaNs first two Shopaholic books were published in 2000 and 2001, respectively—the tail end of the last gilded age. Why adapt these cultural relics now?
“A man will never love or treat you as well as a store,” Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) gushes in voiceover at the filmNs beginning, the first of many Carrie Bradshaw-esque moments, constantly underscored by SATC (and The Devil Wears Prada) costume designer Patricia FieldNs choice of hot-pink, nightmare ensembles. Like Carrie, Rebecca is a journalist; like SATC, Confessions perpetuates the most nonsensical ideas about how the Fourth Estate actually works, especially now: “LetNs start a magazine driven purely by the voice of its writers,” John LithgowNs publishing magnate booms. (By the time you finish reading this review, five more magazines will have been shuttered.) One concession to reality is made: Rebecca lives with a roommate. Her name? Suze (played by Anne Hathaway look-alike Krysten Ritter), whose exhortations to Rebecca to attend Shopaholics Anonymous sound like something Orman herself might advise.
Helmed by P.J. Hogan—basically dormant since MurielNs Wedding (1994) and My Best FriendNs Wedding (1997)—Confessions teeters from one pratfall and cat fight to the next. Rebecca, whoNs $16,000 in hock because of her inability to resist purchasing $200 Marc Jacobs underwear, dreams of working at fashion glossy Alette (whose frosty French editor in chief is played by Kristin Scott Thomas, slumming in Meryl StreepNs castoffs). Through the first of innumerable tired mix-ups, she lands instead at Successful Savings magazine, run by dully principled Brit Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy). Rebecca writes an article under a pseudonym about the perils of defining yourself by the labels you wear—while dodging bill collectors and hiding her profligacy from Luke, a scion who shuns his familyNs loot. But until last-minute life lessons are preached, Confessions is simply a noxious product-placement vehicle for Prada, YSL, Dolce N Gabbana, Catherine Malandrino, Gucci and Burberry. Though boss and employee fall in love, boy-girl romance will never supplant RebeccaNs heavy petting with her frocks.
LetNs invoke Obama invoking Scripture: The time has come to set aside childish things, particularly a movie that hypocritically masquerades as a moral tale about living within oneNs means after devoting most of its running time to name-checking and fetishizing the high-end labels that landed its heroine in the red in the first place. While consumer porn is celebrated, the movieNs production certainly wasnNt averse to belt-tightening: Though Confessions is primarily set in New York City, several scenes were shot in Connecticut, which, as TheNew York Times reported in March, offers production companies a 30 percent tax credit as opposed to New York stateNs 10. As the American Psychiatric Association debates whether “compulsive shopping” is a legitimate disorder worthy of inclusion in the upcoming DSM-V, Disney—the same studio that released Beverly Hills Chihuahua four days after the Dow fell 777.68 points—might wish to consider its own pathology in the projects it green-lights. But if Confessions does even half as well as Chihuahua did at the box office, then weNre all certifiable.
Confessions of a Shopaholic was directed by P.J. Hogan; written by Tracey Jackson, Tim Firth and Kayla Alpert, based on the books by Sophie Kinsella. Countywide.
