SYNOPSIS

In the glamorous world of New York City, Rebecca Bloomwood (ISLA FISHER) is a fun-loving girl who is really good at shopping -- a little too good, perhaps. She dreams of working for her favorite fashion magazine, but can't quite get her foot in the door -- until ironically, she snags a job as an advice columnist for a financial magazine published by the same company. As her dreams are finally coming true, she goes to ever more hilarious and extreme efforts to keep her past from ruining her future. ISLA FISHER ('Wedding Crashers') stars in the film from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director PJ. Hogan ('My Best Friend's Wedding'). The screenplay by Tracey Jackson, Tim Firth and Kayla Alpert is based on the books 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' and 'Shopaholic Takes Manhattan' by Sophie Kinsella.

a movie review by: Gary Brown

Several years ago the political and economic commentator Ben Stein chastised us for our poor savings habits. This came at a time when the average savings rate of Americans dipped into a negative figure. We should save our money, Ben said, rather than blowing several grand on a plasma TV. “Come out and join me on the golf course,” he said with calming nonchalance, as though putting money away in an IRA would easily get you a house in Beverly Hills like Ben’s.

Yet a couple of months ago Ben Stein appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning” to lecture us that we should all go out and spend like crazy during the holiday season to stimulate the flagging U.S. economy, as though it was our patriotic duty to do so.

Ah, but times have changed, haven’t they? One thing hasn’t though—Ben Stein will say just about anything to get his hound dog mug on TV.

Which leads me to “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” the new screwball comedy that opened the other day. Based on the best-selling novel by Sophie Kinsella, this one has “chick flick” written all over it as big as the MetLife blimp that hovers over golf tournaments. I must confess I hated “Confessions” but to be fair there was much laughter from the mostly female audience at the opening show.

I guess I just don’t understand women.

But USA Today movie critic Claudia Puig, who by all accounts is a woman, ripped this one apart in her one star review: “How could any studio be so out of touch as to release a movie glorifying the compulsive shopping habits of an air-headed spendthrift during this dismal state in the global economy?”

Good question. Yet there is a precedent for such movie fare during depressed economic times. Many screwball comedies were made in the 1930s when close to one-fourth of the workforce was unemployed and many families ended up out on the sidewalk with their possessions. Even today, people in financial distress still buy movie tickets to forget their troubles, if just for a couple of hours.

So my less than ebullient review of “Confessions of a Shopaholic” comes not from the timing of its release; the trouble lies with the script and the witless dialogue.

Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher of “Wedding Crashers”) is a 20-something Manhattan journalist who lives for clothes. She charges up a storm on credit cards for said purchases, but when her magazine folds, so does her source of income.

In a totally incredulous turn of events—think of me getting a Pulitzer Prize for this column—material girl Rebecca first ends up as a financial columnist for a savings magazine; then her column called “The Girl in the Green Scarf” (so named for the purchase of a $120 green scarf on overdrawn credit cards) earns her international acclaim and a spot on a TV show; finally, she ends up in a predictable romance with her enabler magazine editor (Hugh Dancy in the Hugh Grant role).

All the while she lies, cheats, two times her best friend (Krysten Ritter), and runs up a $16,000 unpaid balance on credit cards. The laughs only come from Ms. Fisher’s physical pratfalls—be it walking into a door, knocking over a tray of food, or grabbing a pair of marked down Gucci boots from another shopper at a sale.

On this one the better choice is to window shop.

John Goodman Photograph

Leslie Bibb Photograph