'Confessions of a Shopaholic'
(Isla Fisher, Leslie Bibb, et al / DVD / PG / 2009 / Touchstone Pictures)
Overview: Becky's desperate for a job writing for a high-fashion magazine in glamorous New York. She gets her stilettos in the door writing a personal finance column at a sister publication. Much to her surprise, her column, The Girl In The Green Scarf, becomes a hit, and she falls head over high heels for her handsome, overworked boss (Hugh Dancy). But Becky has a secret that leads to some hilarious high jinks that could unravel it all.
DVD Verdict: If you go to the movie expecting something resembling the book, you will be disappointed. The book is about 90% different than the movie and in the book Rebecca was much more believable as just an every day person getting into debt. If I remember correctly in the book Becky got an advance after graduation and just got into the habit of spending until it had grown well past what she had in the bank.
But it was not so bad that she seemed irresponsible. In the book she is a valued reporter at successful savings from the start. And Luke Brandon was just someone she knew as a reporter. Overall a much stronger and independent woman in the book (oh, and it was all set in London!).
Here, um not so much. Her spending is very out of control for no reason and she starts off at a gardening magazine. Since she seems to have no interest in reporting (other than to get to fashion :: SUPER CLICHE':::) and indeed takes a job at successful savings to attempt to get into a fashion magazine, she comes off a bit flighty and selfish.
I felt bad for all those serious girls in the waiting room who wanted the job at Sucessful Savings - that went to Becky because she wanted to shop. Fortunately, in the movie, for someone so hapless she gets a charming handsome editor who thinks she is pretty and thinks most of what she does is great.
Of course the movie ends in kind of the "tootsie" live tv moment where Becky is outed as being in big debt (while in the book it is Becky who takes Brandon to task on TV for one of his companys taking advantage of ordinary folks) but in the movie everyone loves her anyway after proving to be a fraud.
I guess the current economic times comes into play in that Becky in the movie is the person we all hate. The person who got the too big for her to pay mortgage even though she knew, or should have, there was no way to pay for it, the person who got into debt and is now declaring bankruptcy ... yet, this movie gives her the dreamy Hugh Dancy as reward. And in the movie, Becky never seems remorseful, yet in the book she really is.
I might have enjoyed this more had I not read the book. To see a strong independent Becky there kind of makes me frustrated that things were so changed here. [SS] This is a Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:
Deleted Scenes
Bloopers
'Behind The Fashion’ Featurette
Music Video - ‘Stuck With Each Other’
www.DisneyDVD.com
FUN FACTS!
Ed Helms of "The Office" is seen only on videotape in the movie as self-help money management guru Garrett E. Barton.
Sophie Kinsella was on the "Confessions of a Shopaholic" set nearly every day as associate producer, consulting and watching her beloved creation of Rebecca Bloomwood come to life. Not so coincidentally considering the massive international sales of the "Shopaholic" novels, Kinsella was often approached by excited fans on New York, Connecticut and Miami locations as if she were more of a movie star than an author.
The production spent two all-nighters dressing the beautiful atrium of Henri Bendel with a Midsummer Night's Dream themed design, as well as the aviator-themed window displays. They also created window displays for the Hearst Tower with faux stores by Valentino, Anna Sui, Catherine Malandrino and Alberto Ferretti. Excited New Yorkers thought that actual stores had opened on the ground level of the Tower and were sorely disappointed to discover that they were only for the movie.