Shopaholic film missing a left shoe

By Jackie Ammons     2/26/09 6:00pm

Product placement is the name of the game in the recently-released Confessions of a Shopaholic, which attempts to mimic 2006's The Devil Wears Prada and its fashion-focused world. Based on the bestselling novel by Sophie Kinsella, Shopaholic produces only a fraction of Prada's intelligent plotline, resulting in a watered down and fluffier - but still entertaining - version of the story of a charming woman in the realm of haute couture.In Shopaholic, Rebecca Bloomwood (Horton Hears a Who!'s Isla Fisher) has an addiction. She faithfully goes to her support group meetings and unfailingly tries to get rid of her bad habit with the support of her best friend (What Happens in Vegas' Krysten Ritter) and her parents (Kit Kittredge: An American Girl's Joan Cusack and Speed Racer's John Goodman).

Yes, Rebecca's problem is pretty serious: She is a shopaholic.

When watching this film, one can't help but compare it to Prada. The basic difference between the two is that Prada exposes the dark side of the fashion world while Shopaholic simply embraces the joy of fashion. The contrast between the films is stark - the former is relatively serious while the latter is completely light-hearted - and thus illustrates Shopaholic's lack of substance.

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While Prada employed great wit and depth, the storyline of Shopaholic is trite and more than a bit shallow. Rebecca likes shoes; she buys too many shoes; and then she goes into shoe self-rehab. It's that straightforward.

In spite of the plot's simplicity, however, the film is at times disjointed. Within a span of five minutes, Rebecca's boss Luke (The Jane Austen Book Club's Hugh Dancy) oddly transitions from shamelessly flirting with Rebecca to slyly dating Rebecca's fashionista arch-nemesis to declaring his undying love for Rebecca. This part of the movie's plot makes no sense.

In spite of the movie's discontinuity, Fisher plays a charming lead. Her quirky, witty personality provides Shopaholic's warmth and entertainment, and her comedic acting as a crazy shopaholic is absolutely hysterical. The audience was in stitches when Rebecca froze her credit card in a block of ice and then used her hairdryer to free it from its chilly prison.

While Rebecca's shopping obsession is entertaining, the expensive, trendy product placement used in the film to illustrate her addiction makes one wonder if the financial focus of the film was really used to gratify audiences in the box office with an entertaining film or to cater to the multitude of designers and retailers who paid to be featured. Yves Saint Laurent, Barney's, Prada, Gucci and even Borders Bookstore play prominent roles in the movie, and while they play a pertinent function in showing the essence of being a "shopaholic," their overemphasized role in the movie distracts the audience from its simplistic storyline.

Rebecca Bloomwood is a cute character, but the storyline that Shopaholic bestows upon her is less than ideal. Unfortunately, Fisher's acting abilities don't quite find their match in the film's uncomplicated and stilted plot. Nevertheless, Shopaholic serves as a lighthearted and entertaining film, even if it fails to reach the greatness of its Prada predecessor.

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