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Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
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Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:3
Rotten:32
Average Rating:3.8/10
Consensus: This middling romantic comedy underutilizes a talented cast and delivers muddled messages on materialism and conspicuous consumption.
Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for some mild language and thematic elements.
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Feb 13, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $44,239,688
Synopsis: Based on a pair of effervescent novels by Sophie Kinsella, CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC is a light and bubbly confection that should appeal to those who can identify with its heroine's passion.... Based on a pair of effervescent novels by Sophie Kinsella, CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC is a light and bubbly confection that should appeal to those who can identify with its heroine's passion. Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher, WEDDING CRASHERS) has a label-filled wardrobe that any fashionista would covet, but she also has credit card debt to match. She craves a job at the Vogue-like Alette, but a position at a financial magazine at the same publishing company may be her ticket in. Despite her painfully low credit rating, Becky starts dishing out advice on saving, while debt collector Derek Smeath (character actor Robert Stanton) is hot on her Louboutin heels. Meanwhile, she is competing for the affections of her charming boss, Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy, THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB), with icy Alette employee Alicia Billington (Leslie Bibb, IRON MAN). A well-heeled hybrid of SEX AND THE CITY and THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, SHOPAHOLIC features the talents of Patricia Field, costume designer for those two films. The clothes are almost on an equal footing with the actors here, and each well-chosen piece in Manhattan shop windows or worn by Bloomwood helps contribute to the film's bright mood. A lesser actress might have been lost in all the colors, but Fisher is a formidable comic presence who pulls off Becky's ditzy lines and goofy falls with equal aplomb. Those hoping for a smart discourse on the perils of credit cards and excess spending are certainly watching the wrong film, but SHOPAHOLIC may just be the fashion equivalent of food porn for dieters. [More]
Starring: Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Joan Cusack, John Goodman
Starring: Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Joan Cusack, John Goodman, John Lithgow, Kristin Scott Thomas, Fred Armisen, Leslie Bibb, Julie Hagerty, Krysten Ritter, Robert Stanton, Christine Ebersole, Clea Lewis, Wendie Malick, Stephanie March
Director: P.J. Hogan
Director: P.J. Hogan
Screenwriter: Tim Firth, Tracey Jackson
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
Composer: James Newton Howard
Studio: Buena Vista Internationa
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Release:
Jun 23, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.40
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, French, Spanish
Additional Release Material:
- Deleted Scenes
Bloopers:
- 1. Bloopers Of A Shopaholic
Music Video:
- 1. Stuck With Each Other By Shontelle Featuring Akon
- Disc 1: Theatrical release
Reviews for Confessions of a Shopaholic
Here [Fisher] is giving it everything she’s got and it’s just not enough.
This is a movie that is warning us against the dangers of being slaves to labels while at the same time celebrating those same designer brands.
[T]his adaptation is really just about buying the 'brand,' and--like the retailers in the film--selling America something it already had.
The production renders totally irrelevant all hopes for a well-made movie. It's one of those ragged, pandemonious studio comedies that hammers at plot points in every contrived scene.
Not only is it an unfunny movie shrilly told, it probably is the most ill-timed and appallingly insulting movie in recent memory.
It's very hard to watch a wild-eyed woman engage in an orgy of avarice using a fan of maxed-out cards when so many have lost so much – even if there is a message within the madness, that fiscal responsibility is the true key to happiness.
Note to would-be financial journalists: No one cares about your personal musings. Not even at Portfolio.
Here we are, only nine months after the Sex and the City movie, and an obsessive spender with an overstuffed closet -and credit card bills to match- no longer seems quite so cute.
There is so much wrong with Confessions of a Shopaholic -- timing, execution, resolution and moral stance, to name a few -- that it's hard to know where to begin.
It was hard to shake the worry that a fizzy comedy about debt would be about as wrong for our current woes as uncorking a bottle of champagne. Confessions is definitely slight.
If there is a single bright spot in the financial crisis, it is the possibility that one day producer Jerry Bruckheimer will run out of money.
Isla Fisher is carrying this often stylish comedy on her Prada-upholstered back.
Like the flailing American economy, Confessions of a Shopaholic wants to eat its cake and have its spiritual redemption too. (Talk about timing!)
Strains far too hard for comedy that seldom erupts with full force and inevitably betrays a free-spending mindset that now feels gone with the wind.
When is the right time to release a hollow, one-dimensional, unfunny, illogical, mindless comedy with a poorly defined protagonist and a dumbly formulaic plot?
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