Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic

I've heard many bad things about this movie. I, however, liked it. It helps to belong to the target audience, to like shopping and fashion and to adore Isla Fisher.

Fisher plays Becky Bloomwood, a shopaholic with a huge credit card debt. She dreams of working for a fashion magazine, but ends up working for financial mag Successful Savings. Becky becomes an overnight success giving people financial advice that she herself has trouble following.

Shopaholic the movie is based on Sophie Kinsella's first two Shopaholic novels: Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan. I've read them both and I enjoyed them very much. They're fun reads! I know people are disappointed that the movie didn't follow the books more closely. Or they are disappointed that they used material from the first two books for one movie. While I would've liked to see two seperate movies for the two books that both followed the books more closely, I ultimately didn't mind the changes too much.

Two things I didn't like: Luke working at Successful Savings and the moving mannequins. While I liked this Luke and Hugh Dancy as Luke, it's not the Luke from the books. Turning Luke into Becky's boss is rather convenient. And that's just lazy screenwriting. And the mannequins? OH MY GOD! How did that get past test screenings? Seriously? I want to know! Awful, just AWFUL! What is wrong with using voice over?

I liked the elements they used from the books. At beginning Becky looks at her bill and says 'OK, don't panic', followed by her assumption that her creditcard must have been stolen. I liked that Luke gave Becky money so she could buy her Denny & George scarf. I liked that Becky had to sell all her stuff at the end, and that Luke ended up buying her scarf back. That was AWWWW.

I read the books with Fisher in mind as Becky and she was perfect. Exactly the Becky I imagined her to be. I liked Krysten Ritter as Suze. I know she looks nothing like book-Suze, but since I read them knowing Krysten would play her, I didn't mind. Leslie Bibb doesn't have much to do as Alicia. I don't know why they put so much make up on her face. Leslie is a naturally gorgeous girl! Dancy was perfectly charming as Luke, but again, his character wasn't like book-Luke at all.

Overall, it was an enjoyable movie, mostly thanks to the undeniably charming Isla Fisher. A 3,5/5.