Credit debt not so funny for ‘Shopaholic’
Back when writers Tracey Jackson and Tim Firth first started
adapting a book by Sophie Kinsella about a vapid girl who finds
herself unemployed and deep in debt, it probably seemed like a good
idea. But the Feb. 13 release of the film seemed a bit inopportune
as major corporations lay off employees by the thousands, and the
news business in which the main character is employed, is
especially hit hard. So badly hit that a newspaper in San Francisco
that started during the Gold Rush may soon be closing its
doors.
Credit debt not so funny for ‘Shopaholic’
Back when writers Tracey Jackson and Tim Firth first started adapting a book by Sophie Kinsella about a vapid girl who finds herself unemployed and deep in debt, it probably seemed like a good idea. But the Feb. 13 release of the film seemed a bit inopportune as major corporations lay off employees by the thousands, and the news business in which the main character is employed, is especially hit hard. So badly hit that a newspaper in San Francisco that started during the Gold Rush may soon be closing its doors.
The timing of the release would have been okay if it were enough to allow people to escape their own financial woes, but unfortunately it’s not. It may be that the movies she’s chosen have poorly developed characters, but when I first saw the previews for “Confessions of a Shopaholic” I couldn’t name one other movie I’d seen with Isla Fisher. But a look at her Internet Movie Database profile reveals that I’ve seen not one, not two, but seven movies in which Fisher had a role. Clearly she is not much of a standout and in “Shopaholic” she misses another opportunity.
Fisher stars as the movie’s heroine Rebecca Bloomwood, a garden journalist who has a penchant for fashion. She is a perky redhead who knows her way around Gucci and Prada. The problem is that anyone who has tried to live on a journalist’s salary would know, it’s not enough to support that kind of a spending habit. Rebecca finds herself $16,000 in credit card debt when her garden magazine goes out of business overnight.
Her best friend and roommate Suze (Krysten Ritter) offers to cover the rent and tries to put Rebecca on a budget. She even gets her friend to sign up for Shoppers Anonymous, a play on AA. But Rebecca can’t give it up. Even as she begins to face how much debt she actually has, she still can’t resist a good sale – even if it ends up costing her $400.
Though her shopping habits haven’t changed, Rebecca finds another job quickly, even if it is hardly the job she would dream up for herself. She takes a job working for a financial magazine of all places in hopes that she will eventually land at the fashion magazine owned by the same company. The problem is Rebecca doesn’t know anything about finances and she really doesn’t care about savings.
In much the same way that everyone mistakes Chance (Peter Sellers) for a super intelligent, important person in “Being There,” Rebecca has convinced her editor, Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy), and the general population that she is some kind of financial guru. Rebecca needs to hold it together when an embellished resume and a debt collector try to catch up with her at her new job. After all, as her attraction grows for her dashing boss, she has more to lose than just her job. But even with her career and love on the line, she reaches an all-time low when she chooses material possessions over her best friend.
Unfortunately, Fisher never presents Rebecca as anything more than vapid and superficial. Even her explanation for why she can’t stop shopping seems to fall short as she spouts off a line about how everything is perfect in the world when she shops. The one light in the movie is the actors who play Rebecca’s frugal parents, Joan Cusack and John Goodman. The two comedians can always be counted on to do their job of adding a little humor to any film.
And maybe the timing of the movie is good after all – it might remind all those people tempted to charge up their credit lines to rethink their purchases.
