Movie Review: Confessions of a Shopoholic

Director: P.J. Hogan

Release: 2009

Genre: Comedy

Synopsis:

Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a sweet and charming New York City girl who has a tiny, little problem that is rapidly turning into a big problem: she's hopelessly addicted to shopping and drowning in a sea of debt. While Rebecca has dreams of working for a top fashion magazine, she can't quite get her foot in the door—that is, until she snags a job as an advice columnist for a new financial magazine published by the same company.

Overnight, her column becomes hugely popular, turning her into an overnight celebrity, but when her compulsive shopping and growing debt issues threaten to destroy her love life and derail her career, she struggles to keep it all from spiraling out of control...and is ultimately forced to reevaluate what's really important in life.

Based on the best-selling series of books by Sophie Kinsella.

Review:

This is definitely a chick flick, but a good one in my opinion. There is some good humour with some of the situations that the main character, Becky Bloomwood, found herself in. It was almost painful to watch at some points especially the sticky situation she found herself in when trying to retrieve some misdirected mail that could have potentially blown her entire career! John Goodman and Jane Cusack as Becky's parents were hilarious! They really stole the show.

This is a good movie to watch as a couple because the girl will love it. My girlfriend watched this movie with me and she laughed a lot. At the end of the movie, she told me it was quite different from the book. The names and descriptions of all the characters were the same, but there were BIG differences in terms of plot and setting. Confessions of a Shopoholic is one of her favourite books and she is very familiar with Sophie Kinsella's work. In fact, her love of the books was the main reason for us watching the movie!

Anyways, the setting was wrong. The book took place in London, England and NOT NYC. All the characters were British and NOT American. Luke Brandon did not run Simply Savings magazine. He owned his own business called Brandon Communications in the book. Other than these glaring differences, the movie and book were pretty close.

For a comedy, I rate this 7/10.