Confessions of a Shopaholic

♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

The trailer was hilarious. The movie bored me. I thinks it is because almost all the funny parts were already in the trailer. Slapping the Finnish guy in the trailer was funny. In the movie, not so much. Isla Fisher was fun and bubbly and shrieked a lot. She looked like a petite version of Amy Adams. Or maybe it is just the hair. Fun fact: she is married to Borat.

I think what makes the film boring is that people already saw Prada two years ago and for those who do not dig chick lit we just could not see the difference. There is always a girl in a big city, usually New York. There is always a fashion magazine and a job in that fashion magazine. Designer clothes are always present. The protagonist is always seen carrying a paper bag full of it. There is always a bitchy model semi-villain. And since there is a fashion magazine, there is always a chief editor, usually a cold but fashionable lady patterned after that that Anna Wintour woman.

But in fairness to the movie, it focused more on the issue of credit card debt, aside from personal ambitions. For that, anyone with a credit card could easily relate to the protagonist. From the title itself, we know that the movie involves a lot of shopping. The shopping phenomenon is complex but interesting. Why do people love to shop? People have different addictions and people have different opinions about it. Some people are addicted to books, some to groceries. In this movie, the lead character is addicted to designer labels.

I think the redeeming factor of the movie is that it makes everyone realize what their respective addictions are, but whether they would do something about it or not, that is the question. It is not as if the film serves as an epiphany of sorts, specially when almost half of it deals with a shopping tour of New York. I think it is not powerful enough to curb one's shopping addictions. Taking a scene from the movie as an example, I think the movie itself is like one session in Shopaholics Anonymous, after which you go back to your normal life like you never attended it.

I think what makes shopping addicting is the thought of immediate gratification, of some sort of chemical rushing to the brain triggered by the sight of a credit card and a paper bag full of goodies that it could conjure via its swiping powers.

I liked the irony in the film, of being buried in debt and at the same time providing advice on financial management. It shows you how hypocritical everyone is, giving an advice that s/he would not be able to apply in his/her own life.

I also hate the debt collector. And he had to be a geek. But he was just doing his job. I pity debt collector, but I love how Rebecca got back at him, HAHAHA. Count coins moron, count! And this is the first time I saw Wendie Mallick again after Just Shoot Me ended. That was fun though she was not that funny here. The talking/moving mannequins were strange but it is amazing how they did that. Was that pure CGI? Freaky but cool.