All films reflect the times in which they are made and Confessions of a Shopaholic is no different. Unfortunately for viewers, that time is during the Bush years, before the economic meltdown. It is rare that a film seems so at odds with what is going on in the world at the time of its release. The story, which is based on Sophie Kinsella's best-selling series of books, pokes fun at those who get into debt. The film is a running joke about how maxing out credit cards makes it more difficult to go shopping for luxury items.
For those who have lost their jobs, their pensions, their savings or their homes, the film will seem more than unfunny - watching it will feel like a punch in the face. Writes Melissa Anderson in New York's Village Voice: 'Confessions of a Shopaholic plays like both a supremely outmoded chick-lit adaptation and an outrageously obscene gesture as the economy continues to swallow up livelihoods, homes and hope.'
Shopaholic's plot, which is based on Kinsella's first two books, follows the inane misadventures of an airhead heroine called Rebecca Bloomwood, played by Isla Fisher. Bloomwood's life revolves around shopping for high-end luxury goods she can't afford, something she achieves by maxing out all of her many credit cards. When she's suddenly denied credit, she doesn't know how she's going to cope, so she takes a job as a financial journalist despite being unable to manage her personal finances. There are some 'comic' capers as she tries to avoid a nasty debt collector and some hastily added moralising about the evils of a consumer lifestyle. But the thrust of the film is all about how lovely it is - or used to be - to go out and buy expensive things with money you never had.
The film was reportedly ready for release at the end of last year, but its producers, Disney, decided to hold it back because of the economic crisis. With the crisis worsening by the day, they decided to dump it in the quiet post-Christmas period in the hopes of cutting their losses. There have been rumours of reshoots to make the characters more contrite about their free-spending ways, but these are strenuously denied by all involved.
The filmmakers claim the saving grace of the film is that, in spite of her love of consumerism, Bloomwood finally realises that she's addicted to shopping and must break her habit. They are keen to push this angle in the press, as it's the only way to make the film less offensive. But they are upstaged by the faux glamour and glitz of the whole shameful affair. The real purpose of the film seems to be product placement for glitzy companies. Instead of making the viewer feel less inclined to shop, it actually tries to encourage them to spend money by filling the screen with expensive luxury goods.
At the New York press event for the film, producer Jerry Bruckheimer - the man behind hits such as the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy - appeared under siege. He decided to avoid meeting the press close up, and held two small press conferences instead. When asked how he thinks those who have lost their livelihoods and pensions in America's biggest economic crisis since the 1930s will react to the financial profligacy of the film, he was quick to respond: 'I think it's a tale of triumph,' he says. 'It's the tale of a girl who overcomes her bad habits and through frugality become penurious. At the end, she's not a shopaholic any more. She finds a job that she loves and falls in love.'
Director P.J. Hogan, an Australian who had a hit way back in the 1990s with the comic Muriel's Wedding, says it's fine that the real issues of debt are kept below the surface.
