Confessions of a Shopaholic - the movie

I decided to watch this movie on Friday evening while Greg was out of town. It had been sitting on our shelf for about a month and I figured I'd better watch it so that I could send it back to Netflix (or whatever they are now) and get something more interesting, like Thor or X-Men: First Class. So I popped it into the player and prepared myself for a slightly-lame, feel-good romantic comedy.

About 40 minutes into it, I was thinking, "I can totally see where this is going."  I even posted that on Facebook, adding that romantic comedies are supposed to be cute, predictable, and awkward.  This one was living up to expectations.  The main character had woven such a tangled web of poor choices and deception that everything was going to unravel by the end of the movie, but somehow true love and the human spirit would prevail.  And that's exactly what happened, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result. 

In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Rebecca Bloomwood is a less-than-perfect heroine who (pretty much literally) stumbles into a job working for a mostly-perfect boss at a finance magazine.  Rebecca, whose true ambition is to work for a fashion magazine owned by the same company, writes witty, down-to-earth financial advice from a fresh and vibrant perspective.  Trouble is, she's up to her ears in debt and is being stalked by a collector because of her inability to pass by a clothing or shoe store without going in and buying something - or a lot of somethings.  As her column grows in popularity and her working relationship with her editor (played by the charming Hugh Dancy) blooms into something more, Rebecca's double life becomes harder to maintain.  Eventually, she must deal with the consequences of her lies and lack of self-control.

I liked this movie because I thought it had a great message.  There are times when Rebecca is not a very likeable character, but there are other times when you have to ache for her because she clearly has no idea how to deal with the mess she creates for herself.  In the end, she learns an important lesson that I think is often lacking in today's culture: personal responsibility.  The film is rated PG and is very clean, so I would recommend watching it with preteen girls (and older), and using it as an opportunity to discuss how Rebecca's choices hurt herself and the people around her, and how she was able to turn things around and make it right.

One more note: This book is based on the Chick Lit novel of the same name, which I haven't read.  I prefer to watch the movie before I read the book when possible, and now the book is on my "to read" list.  I may review it in the near future. :)