Do you speak Prada? (Confessions of a Shopaholic (DVD))

Member Name: Great_reviewer07

Product:	Confessions of a Shopaholic (DVD)
Date:	03/05/09 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny at times

Disadvantages: Borin, dull and lacking comedy

Confessions Of A Shopaholic is a chick flick film adapted from the Sophie Kinsella novel by the name of Shopaholic. The film was released 13th February 2009 and was greeted by mainly negative reviews from critics the film only received 23% positive reviews from critics. The film is rated 12 and runs for approximately 104 minutes.

Confessions Of A Shopaholic is directed by P. J. Hogan who's biggest hit to date would be his directorial debut with My Best Friend's Wedding, starring Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney.
Isla Fisher plays the lead character Rebecca Bloomwood. Isla Fisher has also starred in Wedding Crashers, Hot Rod and also played a part in Home And Away. She is married to Sacha Baron Cohen. Her co-star is played by Hugh Dancy (Ella Enchanted).

Rebecca Bloom wood (Isla Fisher) is an unmitigated shopaholic, she's recently moved to Manhattan, not for a job, nor love or family but yep you guessed it... shopping! She's a journalist who by chance manages to get a job writing a column about clothes scams.
While working at her new job she begins to have feelings for her boss Luke Brandon. Meanwhile her addiction to shopping is catching up with her, she has run up $16,000 of shopping debt and has debt collectors after her for an entire year. While writing for the money magazine her debts begin to catch up with her and it's only a matter of time before everything catches up with her and her double life is exposed...

When I saw this advertised I thought it was exactly the type of film that I would enjoy, I'm a huge fan of chick flicks and like every girl I love to shop so a mix of the two couldn't go wrong could it?
Wrong! Sadly this film didn't live up to the high expectations that I was hoping for it. I dragged my boyfriend along to see this at the cinema as he had dragged me along to see Crank: High Voltage which was a huge let down.

Generally I enjoy these kinds of films, they're not films that have very intense storylines or are likely to keep you in suspense and ultimately they are very clichéd and predictable however I'm still a huge fan of girly movies.
This however was a huge let down for me, after the first half an hour or so I was bored senseless, this film has it's funny moments but it was in desperate need of some injected humour. I think throughout the entire film I think I probably laughed a total of 3 times and even then the parts weren't exactly funny either. My boyfriend absolutely hated it, he's a typical man that hates noting more than shopping and girly films so I did know when we went that he wasn't going to like it. However there have been some films that he's enjoyed (not that he'll admit it thought!) although this he hated.

I found the acting to be laughable, I haven't seen Isla Fisher in anything before and after this film I'm not particularly interested in seeing her in anything else. Her character simply had nothing to her, she wasn't likeable but you didn't hate her, you quite simply didn't care about her at all. The leading man Hugh Dancy was just the same, he was quite good looking which helped a little but he had the same problem as Isla Fisher's character, you simply didn't care. I think rom-coms need characters that you can identify with as you want the audience to get behind them and hope everything works out but with this film instead of willing them to get together I was willing it to end.
The whole film was full of clichéd and ultimately extremely cheesy, it was the regular plot line that you see in all mediocre rom-coms and I was extremely disappointed as I was really looking forward to seeing this. The story is predictable and dull, it's blatantly obvious what's going to happen and after you've seen the first 45 minutes you'll be able to predict what will happen during the rest of the film.

I've read a lot of very positive reviews of Confessions Of A Shopaholic and I didn't know if it was simply me being a sceptic and not giving it a fair chance but then after speaking to a couple of friends that have also seen this they mirrored exactly what I had said, they too found it boring and cheesy so I'm glad it's not just me!
This is a film that I wont be watching again and one that I wouldn't recommend to anyone, I'm afraid that this film was a complete let down and if you're looking for an entertaining, funny and endearing rom-com then keep searching because unfortunately this isn't it!

Confessions Of A Shopaholic is still showing at cinemas, however I doubt it will out for much longer as it was released a good few months ago. The DVD is available to pre-order from play.com, it will cost you £12.99 something that I wont be paying for this, I wont be buying it at all infact! It's released on 26th June.
The soundtrack is currently available to buy from play.com for £8.95, there are a couple of good tracks but the rest are like the movie... dull and lifeless!
Accessory - Jordyn Taylor
Fashion - Lady Gaga
Blue Jeans - Jessie James
Uncontrollable - Adrienne Bailon
Calling You - Kat DeLuna
Stuck With Each Other - Shontelle Feat Akon
Unstoppable - Kat DeLuna
Big Spender - Adrienne Bailon
Bad Girl - Pussycat Dolls
Again - Natasha Bedingfield
Takes Time To Love - Trey Songz
Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Greg Laswell
Don't Forget Me - Macy Gray
Shopaholic Suite - James Newton Howard

Summary: Very disappointing