Confessions of a Shopaholic – Review

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WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Gardening journalist Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) would rather be working on a Rag Mag, as her appearance – dressed from head to toe in designer clothes she can’t afford – testifies.

When a job becomes available at Alette magazine, she scrabbles around for the cash to buy a green scarf to top off her interview outfit, only to arrive at the office to find the job has already gone.

She’s advised to take a job at a financial publication in the same group, with a view to moving up to Alette in the future, but what does she know about finance?

She’s up to her eyeballs in debt and has a collector on her tail, day and night.

But through a combination of good fortune and good will, her naivety pays off, as her editor Luke (Hugh Dancy) gives her a down-to-earth column of her own, that becomes a sensation.

So successful does she come, that the head of Alette (Kristin Scott Thomas) turns up on her doorstep, offering her a position on the magazine of her dreams – but after the journey she’s been on, is this really what she wants?

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

This is one of those films that – as the advert says – does what it says on the tin. A shopaholic confesses her addiction to shopping. It’s better than men, she makes clear, right from the start.

Fisher’s ditsy persona is alternately charming and immensely irritating.

The film follows the same path – sometimes, it’ll take you with it and its gentle humour – but other times, it’s emetic moralising will generate a frustration and rage within you that will have you screaming at one clichéd plot point after another – or protagonists who act completely out of character in order for the corny story to shudder to its obvious conclusion.

Fans of the books on which the film is based – and the target audience of young teenaged girls – probably won’t mind the cliché-ridden incoherences, so for it’s very specific audience, the film will work.

But you won’t find many guys in the cinema – unless their doing some kind of penance for a misdeed towards their girlfriends.

For the right audience this will be a hit, for everyone else, you’ll want to take it back – or at least wait for the sales.