Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)

"...a pleasingly addictive treat. Happily, it's one that won't max out your credit card.  Charles Gant, Heat Magazine
"...[a] sweet and endearing fashionista fairy tale...  Keith Cohen, Entertainment Spectrum
"As journalist Rebecca, Isla Fisher is silly and adorable -- just like this adaptation of Sophie Kinsella's novel.  Nina Caplan, Time Out
"Breathless and petite yet powerfully in-your-face, Fisher combines dizzy femininity and no-nonsense verve in the manner of a classic screwball heroine.  Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"Hilarious. A nonstop laughing spree.  Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com

Editor's Note Based on a pair of effervescent novels by Sophie Kinsella, CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC is a light and bubbly confection that should appeal to those who can identify with its heroine's passion. Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher, WEDDING CRASHERS) has a label-filled wardrobe that any fashionista would covet, but she also has credit card debt to match. She craves a job at the Vogue-like Alette, but a position at a financial magazine at the same publishing company may be her ticket in. Despite her painfully low credit rating, Becky starts dishing out advice on saving, while debt collector Derek Smeath (character actor Robert Stanton) is hot on her Louboutin heels. Meanwhile, she is competing for the affections of her charming boss, Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy, THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB), with icy Alette employee Alicia Billington (Leslie Bibb, IRON MAN). A well-heeled hybrid of SEX AND THE CITY and THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, SHOPAHOLIC features the talents of Patricia Field, costume designer for those two films. The clothes are almost on an equal footing with the actors here, and each well-chosen piece in Manhattan shop windows or worn by Bloomwood helps contribute to the film's bright mood. A lesser actress might have been lost in all the colors, but Fisher is a formidable comic presence who pulls off Becky's ditzy lines and goofy falls with equal aplomb. Those hoping for a smart discourse on the perils of credit cards and excess spending are certainly watching the wrong film, but SHOPAHOLIC may just be the fashion equivalent of food porn for dieters.

	Fred Armisen
	John Goodman
	Joan Cusack
	Kristin Scott Thomas
	Hugh Dancy
	John Lithgow
	Isla Fisher
	Leslie Bibb
	Julie Hagerty
	Krysten Ritter
	Robert Stanton
	Christine Ebersole
	Clea Lewis
	Wendie Malick
	Stephanie March
	Chad Oman - Executive Producer
	Jerry Bruckheimer - Producer
	Mike Stenson - Executive Producer
	Jo Willems - Director of Photography
	Ron Bozman - Executive Producer
	Patricia Field - Costume Designer
	James Newton Howard - Composer
	Sophie Kinsella - Source Writer
	Tim Firth - Screenwriter
	Tracey Jackson - Screenwriter
	P.J. Hogan - Director

Los Angeles Times
"CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC is a cleverly constructed catwalk of a romantic comedy that's a lot like the perfect outfit..." 02/13/2009

Chicago Sun-Times
"It glories in its silliness, and the actors are permitted the sort of goofy acting that distinguished screwball comedy....At the center of this maelstrom is a genuinely funny comedienne named Isla Fisher..." 02/13/2009

Variety
"Fisher is alive to everything Rebecca might be feeling or wanting at a given moment while also, in the tradition of romantic-comedy greats such as Carole Lombard, Katherine Hepburn and Lucille Ball, being able to stride imperturbably through any disaster and come out on top." 02/12/2009

Wall Street Journal
"Ms. Fisher has a few moments worthy of her abundant comedic gifts...and the cast includes Hugh Dancy, who is calm and engaging as the editor of a financial magazine..." 02/13/2009

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] the delightful Fisher, a goofily appealing presence who -- as shown in a hilarious dance routine that sees her flirting coquettishly with an antique fan -- also happens to be a gifted physical comedienne." 03/01/2009

Entertainment Weekly
"From its talking store-window mannequins to its sneaky debauched heroine, the movie is romantic-comedy fizz, but it's fizz that bubbles like champagne." -- Grade: A- 02/20/2009

ReelViews 5 of 10
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...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...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...Confessions of a Shopaholic takes time out to poke fun at addiction recovery groups, but not in a way that's clever or incisive. I'd be the first to acknowledge that there's room for parody here, but this approach is lazy...About the only positive thing I can say about the film is that the actors mostly do competent jobs, although Fisher occasionally oversells the bubbly nature of her character and Kristen Scott Thomas appears to be aping Meryl Streep from The Devil Wears Prada. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
I like "Confessions of a Shopaholic" about as much as I disliked "Sex and the City." Both are about clueless women, but this one knows it. "SATC" is about women searching for love in most of the wrong places, and "Shopaholic" is about a woman searching for happiness in the places that are absolutely right for her: Prada, Gucci, Macy's, Barneys, Saks and on down the avenue...There is not a single unanticipated blip in the story arc. But here's what sort of redeems it: It glories in its silliness, and the actors are permitted the sort of goofy acting that distinguished screwball comedy. We get double takes, slow burns, pratfalls, exploding clothes wardrobes, dropped trays, tear-away dresses, missing maids of honor, overnight fame, public disgrace and not, amazingly, a single obnoxious cat or dog...At the center of this maelstrom is a genuinely funny comedienne named Isla Fisher. She reminds me of Lucille Ball, and not only because she's a redhead. She does one of the most difficult things any actress can do, which is physical comedy: Walk into doors, drop trays, fall into people, go ass over teakettle. She plays a Perfect Ditz in the sense of the Perfect Storm, carrying all before her. Give her a fan and 20 seconds of tango lessons, and get off the floor...It is to the credit of the director, P.J. Hogan of "My Best Friend's Wedding," that he gives Fisher freedom and yet modulates it, so her character's earnest desire to please shines through. It was the same on "I Love Lucy." Lucy wasn't a klutz because she was trying to look funny. She was a klutz because she was trying not to...Look. "Confessions of a Shopaholic" is no masterpiece. But it's funny, Isla Fisher is a joy, and -- of supreme importance -- it is more entertaining to a viewer with absolutely no eagerness to see it (like me) than "Sex and the City" was. Also, no movie can be all bad where the heroine attends a Shopaholics Anonymous meeting and meets a former Chicago Bulls star. - Roger Ebert