So, if you read my posts, you know that I go see every (happy-ish/sappy-ish) movie with some sort of a romantic angle. Though normally I would have seen “Confessions of a Shopaholic” the day it released, February 13th, because I was traveling I had to wait until yesterday. Perhaps it was an omen that this candy-coated, label-obsessed movie actually came out on Friday the 13th.
For those familiar with Chick Lit, the equally candy-coated genre of books that started with “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and included “Confessions of a Shopaholic” (by Sophie Kinsella) as one of its shining star hits, you’d also know by now that the Chick Lit moment has passed its sell-by date. And that’s part of the problem with this movie–it feels stale. The story is basically this: Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is wooed as much by shopping as she is by hunky Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy), the media magnate who gives her a job and somehow manages to forgive all her silly antics and mountain of debt to fall in love with her.

It’s not that it isn’t fun to see an actress like Isla Fisher flirt and fall for someone as dreamy as Hugh Dancy (regardless of who they are actually playing on screen)–they are certainly perfect for the romantic part. However, the pink, pink, everything pink coupled with Rebecca’s endless squealing over very expensive designer items felt outdated both in terms of fashion and also the economy. This was the wrong time for this movie’s release. Also, it felt false in the same way that the movie for “Sex and the City” felt false–though I stayed for the entirety of “Confessions” whereas “Sex and the City” so made me gag so much (it was basically one giant designer advertisement) that I actually walked out of the theater halfway through. The worst part of “Confessions” though, has to do with the worst part of other “romantic comedies” that come out lately, which seem to take a nod from Judd Apatow-style humor.
NOTE TO FILMMAKERS: Stupid, disgusting, physical comedy ruins the mood. 3
Whatever happen to the “You’ve Got Mail” and “Sleepless in Seattle” style of romantic comedy? A time when gag after gag after gag was not the way to someone’s heart?
Anyway, I give “Confessions” an “eh.” I was able to sit through it. Dancy is cute. But please can we grow up now?