Confusions of a Shopaholic would be a more accurate title for this garish romantic comedy that wants to have its thematic cake and eat it too when it comes to inveterate shopper Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher).
Huge credit card debt from compulsively purchasing overpriced clothing from every haute-couture designer boutique in Manhattan has left Rebecca penniless when she flubs a job interview for a finance magazine. The interview backfires into a writing position that Rebecca miraculously fulfills with an immediately popular column “The Girl In the Green Scarf,” written from personal experience.
Distilled from Sophie Kinsella’s first two novels, Confessions of a Shopaholic struggles to mitigate the importance of dressing in designer fashions for Rebecca’s new high-profile job with the necessity of fiscal responsibility. Hugh Dancy plays Rebecca’s editor/love interest Luke Brandon, but never strikes a spark with Fisher’s character. It might have helped if the movie ever got around to showing what Rebecca did with her seemingly nonexistent paychecks. Grade: C-
This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2009.