Confessions of a Shopaholic

The movie plays like an outrageously obscene gesture as the economy continues to swallow up livelihoods. Based on Sophie Kinsella's first two books in her Shopaholic series, Confessions the film moves the source material's setting from London to New York. "A man will never love or treat you as well as a store," Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) gushes in voiceover at the film's beginning, the first of many Carrie Bradshaw-esque moments. Rebecca, who's $16K in hock because of her inability to resist purchasing $200 Marc Jacobs underwear, is constantly dodging bill collectors and dreams of working at a fashion glossy. Instead, she lands at Successful Savings magazine, run by a dully principled Brit (Hugh Dancy). Until last-minute life lessons are preached, Confessions is simply a product-placement vehicle. The movie masquerades as a moral tale about living within one's means after devoting most of its running time to fetishizing the labels that landed its heroine in the red in the first place.