Confessions Of A Shopaholic Ost
Hilma Klingaman
Confessions of a Shopaholic is a 2009 American romantic comedy film based on the first two entries in the Shopaholic series of novels by Sophie Kinsella. Directed by P. J. Hogan, the film stars Isla Fisher as the shopaholic journalist and Hugh Dancy as her boss.
Shopping addict Rebecca Bloomwood lives in New York City with her best friend Suze and works as a journalist for a gardening magazine, but dreams of joining fashion magazine Alette. On the way to an interview with Alette, she tries to purchase a green scarf, but her credit card is declined. Rebecca offers to buy all the hot dogs from a hot dog stand with a check if the vendor gives her back change in cash, claiming that the scarf is a gift for her sick aunt. The vendor refuses but another customer gives her the $20 she needs for the scarf.
Rebecca arrives and learns that the position has been filled internally, but that there is an open position with the financial magazine Successful Saving. Rebecca is interviewed by Successful Saving's editor, Luke Brandon; the man who had given her the $20. She hides the scarf outside, but Luke's assistant enters the office and returns it to her. Knowing she has been caught, Rebecca leaves.
That evening, she and Suze, while intoxicated, write letters to Alette and Successful Saving, but she drunkenly mails each respective letter to the wrong magazine. Luke, impressed by the letter intended for Alette, hires her. As Rebecca is hesitant to use her real name, Luke publishes her writing under the moniker "The Girl in the Green Scarf." Rebecca's column becomes a huge hit among business groups, and even Rebecca's own parents advise her to read her articles. The Successful Saving magazine eventually goes international, bringing much praise to Rebecca from both Suze and her workplace peers. After being asked to participate in a TV interview, Rebecca meets with the editor of Alette to purchase a dress for the occasion.
Rebecca's father is sympathetic to her plight and offers to sell his recreational vehicle to help her. She declines, saying that he earned the camper through years of hard work and saving and that she needs to take responsibility for her own actions. Rebecca is offered a position at Alette, but declines after learning she would be expected to lie to readers. Meanwhile, Luke starts a new company, Brandon Communications.
In order to generate enough revenue to repay her debts, fellow Shopaholic Anonymous members help Rebecca stage an auction for her used clothing. She finally earns enough to pay back all her debt when she sells her green scarf for $300, giving the money to Derek entirely in pennies to make it as inconvenient for him as possible.
After reclaiming her bridesmaid dress, Rebecca arrives to Suze's wedding, where the two reconcile. After the wedding, Rebecca walks past a store window and is briefly tempted to make a purchase, but ultimately walks away. Rebecca then runs into Luke, who returns the green scarf to her, revealing that the woman who bought it was his agent. They kiss, and Rebecca begins working with Luke at his new company.
The film adapts the two books The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Abroad which in the United States were known as Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan respectively.[3] The film uses the novel's American title Confessions of a Shopaholic reinterpreting Rebecca as an American rather than English.
According to DVD commentary, John Lithgow turned down the role of Edgar West twice before accepting it. Fred Armisen was approached for the West role after Lithgow initially turned it down, but after Lithgow changed his mind, the Ryan Koenig role was written for Armisen. Ed Helms was cast as Derek Smeath but scheduling conflicts prevented him from taking the role. He shot the Garret role in one day.
Filming took place in New York, Connecticut, and Florida from January to May 2008.[4][5] To change the ending to be more sympathetic to audiences during a time of recession, re-shoots took place in New York City on November 24 and 28, 2008.[6]
Production on the film also included creating a group of faux upscale brand stores at the base of the Hearst Tower. Present were brands such as Valentino, Anna Sui, Catherine Malandrino and Alberta Ferretti. Several of the costumes were from the collection of French couture designer Gilles Montezin.[7]
Confessions of a Shopaholic received generally negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval score of 27% based on 171 reviews, with an average score of 4.40/10. The site's consensus reads: "This middling romantic comedy underutilizes a talented cast and delivers muddled messages on materialism and conspicuous consumption."[8] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film holds an average score of 38 based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[9]
Isla Fisher's performance generated good reviews and she was nominated for Choice Movie Actress: Comedy at the Teen Choice Awards 2009, but she lost to Anne Hathaway for Bride Wars. The film itself was also nominated for Choice Movie: Romance but lost to Twilight.
The soundtrack of Confessions of a Shopaholic was released on February 17, 2009 under Hollywood Records.[12] However, an alternate track listing was posted on Tommy2.net on January 25, 2009.[13] In the alternate track listing, Adrienne Bailon also sing "Big Spender" instead of Girlicious, and the Pussycat Dolls sing "Bad Girl" instead of Rihanna featuring Chris Brown. In addition, Ric Ocasek is said to sing "Emotion in Motion" instead, and "Music of the Sun" by Rihanna has been replaced by "Calling You" by Kat DeLuna. Shontelle sings "Stuck with Each Other" with Akon for the soundtrack, Lady Gaga's "Fashion" was also in the soundtrack.
It has been a long time since I came as close to walking out of a movie as I did with Confessions of a Shopaholic. Not only did I find this production to be irritating, unfunny, and lacking in entertainment value, but I found its underlying slavishness to a culture of consumption to be morally repugnant. Some of this, I realize, is a matter of timing, but the distributor has itself to blame for that. What company in its right mind would release a movie like this - one that lauds brand names and profligate spending - in a time when so many people are really hurting? Are the expressions of excess displayed in this movie a means of escape or an instrument to salt the wounds of some who spent hard-earned dollars to see this?
My hatred of this movie runs true and deep. It's not a harmless fairy tale or a carefree screwball comedy. It's a bold and shameless expression of a warped and rotted "me first" culture in which people spend beyond their means then turn around and call themselves victims. Who is the villain in this movie? A debt collector, not the thoughtless bimbo who we're supposed to be rooting for. I'm sure there will be audience members who identify with Isla Fisher's bubble-brained Rebecca Bloomwood. They won't see her as a symptom of a societal disease. For my part, I found her to be entirely unsympathetic and having to spend nearly two hours watching her misadventures is a torturous experience. Many scenes take place on New York City sidewalks. On each occasion, I could not contain the never-to-be-realized hope that a runaway taxi would take her out.
Some will doubtless argue that I'm taking the movie too seriously. It is, after all, intended to be a comedy with a side dish of romance. Besides, isn't the point that Rebecca is redeemed by paying off her debts, re-connecting with her parents, and turning her back on her shopaholic ways? The problem is that the movie, with its broad, clumsy humor, doesn't have a pratfall, sight gag, or double entendre worth a feeble chuckle and the romance is flat. As for Rebecca's redemption - it's not hard-won. The "consequences" she faces are obscenely minor. She doesn't lose her home or face the humiliation of standing in a line to get unemployment benefits. And the movie continues to name-drop Prada, Gucci, and others as if they represent the Holy Grail of purchasing power. That, I suppose, is the purchasing power of product placement. It's almost scary that the filmmakers don't see the hypocrisy, and almost as frightening that many in the audience will dismiss it.
On a high level, Confessions of a Shopaholic is trying to fuse The Devil Wears Prada with Legally Blonde, but it lacks the darkly satirical edge of the former and the frothy innocence of the latter. It's a misbegotten offspring that sticks to the bottom of the shoe with the tenacity and stench of a dog turd. I expected more from P.J. Hogan, whose previous features include the heartfelt Muriel's Wedding and the delicious My Best Friend's Wedding. The fact that this movie is based on a pair of books may be an excuse, but it's not a good one.
Rebecca Bloomwood, a journalist at a failing magazine, is obsessed with buying clothing. Wearing it is a secondary concern. It's the process of shopping that provides her with orgasmic shivers. When her interview to write for a fashion magazine fails and her current job is downsized into nothing, she finds herself without a means to pay off her mounting credit card bills. Through a series of coincidences and contrivances too absurd to describe (involving a hot dog, a few drinks too many, and pink envelopes), she manages to gain employment writing for a personal savings magazine, where her "down to Earth" columns are an instant success. They bring her fame but not fortune, and she hides the truth about her personal debt issues from her editor, Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy), who believes that, in Rebecca, he has found the voice who will reverse the downward spiral of the magazine's circulation numbers.
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