The Brilliant Timing—And Awful Fashion—Of Shopaholic

This week, K and I checked out Confessions of a Shopaholic. To call the movie good would be beyond generous: It's two redeeming characteristics were that Isla Fisher (like Amy Adams) can make any obnoxious character significantly less annoying and a good chunk of the film was shot in our 'hood (which K would acknowledge by squeezing my arm excitedly...ha). But while the film is no classic, it does achieve a certain amount of value when you consider its message. Many criticized its release, pulling the whole, "A movie about shopping?! In this economic climate?!" Actually, though, it's a movie about debt. When you exit the dark theater, you want to pay off your credit card, not rush to Barney's—a wave of emotion that is helped along by the fact that the clothes in the movie are AWFUL (way more Ab Fab than even The Devil Wears Prada).

Anyway, the NYT has a spot-on article by David Colman about how the release of this flick actually mirrors all the shiz everyone is going through:

Many people assume the film’s release is terrible timing. If they only knew the truth: Becky does not shop so much as lie, cheat and scheme to keep her secret from being detected. As a comical allegory for the last 15 years, when fashion-mad consumerism, among several other things, drove the world’s economy to new heights, the film stirs up prickly issues about the complex interplay of women, fashion, spending and identity.

And as a panicked Becky (who works as a financial journalist, no less) conceals her mounting debt and dreams of a magical bailout, the story has a painfully familiar ring. Frothy as it is, “Confessions of a Shopaholic” glorifies overshopping about as much as “Trainspotting” glamorized heroin.

“I think it’s amazing timing!” said Madeleine Wickham, alias Sophie Kinsella, who wrote the original novel 10 years ago. In New York for the film’s premiere last week, she agreed to have lunch—and do a little shopping—at what might be Becky’s mother ship: Bergdorf Goodman.

“This story is about someone who has too much credit thrust upon her too young, and she goes out and gets loads of lovely shiny things, then she goes bust and has to deal with it,” Ms. Wickham said. “If we’re not all going through that now... ” She trailed off. “We’re all Becky Bloomwood.”