Confessions of a Shopaholic

Isla Fisher plays Rebecca Bloomwood who is young professional trying to cut it or find her niche in the big city journalistic field. She has a job at a struggling magazine but this does not stop her from trying to spend money like she was Paris Hilton. She was spending beyond her means and this is what is the problem with America and why the USA is suffocating under its own debt.

She has about ten credit cards and she uses them all. She buys clothes she does not need and items she can not afford. Her best friends knows the truth but her parents have no clue she is spending money at this rate. She does not pay her bills and this attracts creditors from hounding her with phone calls. It is actually just one caller who is intent on receiving payment. Just like the financially ignorant that form the majority of the USA, Rebecca uses a credit card at an alarming rate and views these items as free. Like money grows on trees.

She is forced to find a position when her small time magazine is cut down to size and her nominal job was yanked from her. She interviews for a position she has no reason to be interviewing for since it requires financial acumen and understanding of finance. She obtains the position because of her looks and the magazine editor is taken to her. The movie is totally fantasy, not that different than Harry Potter. This movie has a questionable theme and message in this tough times.

John Goodman plays Graham Bloomwood but does not have too many funny lines. The funniest scene in the movie is when she first obtains this temporary position and the smitten editor asks her to write about some esoteric subject and she Googles it. She is asinine enough to do this before he has fully walked away and he then knows she has no clue about the subject matter. I doubt he would have noticed what she typed but this scene was funny since she was totally dead and there is nothing she could do. She has been living in make believe world it was about time to see her character get cut down to size. But this is when the movie totally dives into Freddy Kreuger mythical world. She knows she should be fired but he rewards her by taking her to a special meeting and undercutting a dishonest and terrible CEO giving a shareholder's meetings.

John Lithgow is a powerful magazine owner in this movie. It was delightful to see him. He was a star actor in the 1990's but has pretty much disappeared during the past 10 years. When his character said he was so impressed with the magazine because of one short article that appeared for the first time and he was sending a copy to his children-so what? This is what makes the movie subpar.

I have never seen the movie The Devil Wears Prada and probably never will. This movie is probably slightly better since it actually has a plotline unlike that movie. Both are fantastical and totally unlike reality. Meryl Streep's character in that awful film was totally out of touch with mainstream that one should just watch The Phantom Menace again because of Darth Maul.

Fisher is a cutie but she is not Rachel McAdams. The latter is stunning. I mention Rachel since they were both paired off against each other in the outstanding winner Wedding Crashers. That movie was superlative, a full length comedic blockbuster.

This movie had some decent tunes to it. A couple attractive females besides Isla but not enough. Is this movie a complete chick flick? Probably about 90%. Atleast there was some talk about some finance and business and the writing was fairly decent at times.

This movie has some terrible timing. Rough economic times and this materialistic world so many people live in is just sickening. The USA does not educate its teenager or students about the dangers of financial mismanagement. It is no wonder that so many people in my generation have put themselves in positions that are difficult to impossible to cope with. Spending money one does not have, this movie demonstrates the stupidity of females. Males are no different, buying giant TV's they can not afford and spinning rims that serve little purpose. If one can afford this stuff, that is tight. No problem. Spending $100 on liquor is also what destroys the economic safety and ability of many males.

The movie sort of centers around a scarf. There are all sorts of scarfs, all different colors and designs. She could find another, online for sure. She likes to shop. This movie insinuates that if she can not have this one scarf all hell will break loose. Could not be farther from the truth. Rebecca says this at the end of the movie to not wear it with yellow, how about green, orange, etc.?

I allocate this movie one star.*