Shopping obsessed Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) moves to Manhattan and tries to make it big in the fashion magazine industry. Ironically, despite her disastrous approach to managing her own money, she ends up working for the financial magazine Successful Saving, not the hip fashion rag Alette, as planned. While her dishy boss Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy) takes a shine to her, calamity prone Rebecca is soon making a mess of both her job and a potential romance, her compulsive shopping leading her into dire financial straits and threatening to ruin her reputation as a Successful Saving columnist. Can she curb her addiction before her life goes completely down the tubes?
Based on the series of bestselling books by chick-lit ace Sophie Kinsella and helmed by Muriel's Wedding director P.J. Hogan, this gleefully fluffy film is as taxing as a trip to Harvey Nicks and, if shopping's your bag, just as much fun. Fisher, who started her career in Aussie soap Home and Away, has been slowly scaling the Hollywood ladder for some time now, finally achieving leading-lady status after stand-out supporting roles in comedies such as Wedding Crashers and Hot Rod.
While Rebecca Bloomwood might not be the most multi-layered of characters, she gets ample opportunity to demonstrate her natural charisma here and with supporting turns from John Lithgow, Lynn Redgrave and Joan Cusack, this is a wellturned-out chick-flick that gives its audience exactly what they want.
Confessions of a Shopaholic is a Film programme that first aired in 2009 and has been classified a PG certificate.
