Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic (2.5/5)

Confessions of a Shopaholic
(PJ Hogan):
Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, John Goddman, Joan Cusack.
Running time: 112 minutes.

Confessions of a Shopaholic begins life as fashion porn, a great denial of consumer emptiness. It teeters dangerously on high heels. And then, unexpectedly, it trades the stilettos for flat shoes and all round sensibility. It’s the first film I’ve seen that addresses the recession head on. Expect many, many more. Isla Fisher plays Rebecca, a young journalist buried under credit card debt. She hadn’t a clue how to manage money. Amazingly, she lands a job at a financial magazine where she’s a hit: her column, which preaches financial prudence, becomes a hit and the editor (Hugh Dancy) takes a tumble for her. But she’s a spoofer. How long can she keep the game up? Fisher is a winning personality. She has a cheering face and pixie energy. Her character must endure ritual humiliation and she’s up for it. For she’s a good comedian — her face is alive with little signals that tell us her character knows she shouldn’t be getting away with things, which is all the more fun when she does. Dancy is the quintessential Brit-in-America. He could be the child of a gay marriage between Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. The surface of the film is garish and director PJ Hogan is happy to steer through dire romcom cliches.