I read a couple reviews online, and one talked about how tasteless the movie is because it, "masqurades as a moral tale about living within one's means after devoting most of its running time to fetishizing the labels that landed the heroine in the red in the first place." (Melissa Anderson) I, however, beg to differ. Here's a couple reasons I think that was a fairly un-thought out statement:
1) Obviously this is a film trying to bank off the success of The Devil Wears Prada (and btw, this one's actually a bit better, but I could just be saying that because I really dislike Anne Hathaway), and so we expect to see prada, and gucci and Ives Sant Laurant (did I spell that right? I don't care enough to hit search) etc.
2) There are people like this. I am not one of them, you are most likely not one of them, but they do exist, and you do find them in NYC. If the movie had focused on her big spending excursions to Target and JCPenney... well, we wouldn't really care would we? At least not unless it was a documentary... or an episode of MTV's True Life. For us to believe it, she has to be buying all the big name crap.
3) And besides, they really only talk about the designers; it isn't like every scene begins with a run down on who she's wearing.
So I guess what I'm saying is that it was a pleasant way for me to unwind after a full day, and if you like slightly (OK, super) embarrassing rom-coms, then this may be a good one to see. Also, the sound was pretty fantastic. They use Amy Winehouse's Rehab song three times, once straight on, once as elevator music (! I almost screamed I was so excited) and lastly re-mixed with an upbeat tempo when our heroine is on her way to getting her life back on track- in essence when she is in the process of her rehab. Rule of three and clever use of sound, who could ask for more?
Oh, and one more thing - the reason for the title of the post - I have to admit to a soft spot for the film because I myself have been afflicted by the lure of shops and credit. I have it under control now, but I wonder if it has something to do with my liking the film because I completely believed her when she was talking about how shopping made her feel because I have been there. Comedy's aren't funny unless without underlying truth of pain.
p.s. check out my side bar... I added a rating system to the movies I've seen column - it's out of a possible 5 !'s
2 comments:
just re-read the post and saw I said "because" a lot. I would fix it, but I'm too tired, which is why they're there in the first place, so you'll just have to deal.
Well, I have to confess I've actually read at least two if not three of the Shopaholic books and enjoyed them in the same way you enjoyed the movie. The first one was actually set in the UK so that was a bit different. Apparently there's a store called Harvey Nichols that is familiarly known as Harvey Nicks and is quite a temptation. Based on your rec. I would probably watch the movie when it comes out on DVD except I have the 500-film limit on my Netflix queue already.
Post a Comment