In the Movies

In the Movies: Confessions of a Shopaholic

There are many movies containing characters suffering from an addiction. They portray the addictions is many different ways and can be either accurate or inaccurate. The movie I recently saw was Confessions of a Shopaholic starring Isla Fisher. I chose to watch this movie because I am in no way a shopaholic. Shopping is not one of my many hobbies so I find it very difficult to understand such a behavioral addiction. By the time the movie ended I had gained much more insight to the addiction, both positive and negative.

Confessions of a Shopaholic was released in 2009. It is a comedy/ romance movie. This made it very entertaining for me to watch but it also lacked the seriousness of having a behavioral addiction. Isla Fisher plays the role of Rebecca Bloomwood, a journalist currently switching jobs with high hopes of obtaining her dream job. She ends up picking up a job for a finance magazine in which she has a column advising readers on how to save money. This is ironic because she is a shopaholic and is horrible at saving her money. She is 1000s of dollars in debt and is avoiding the debt collector. She has support from her friend/roommate, but other than that she keeps her problem from everyone else.

I think the movie did a good job of portraying the triggers for addiction, however they didn't focus much on the treatment and recovery which made it seem fairly simple compared to what I have learned in class. Throughout the movie I felt both anger and sympathy towards Rebecca Bloomwood. When the debt collector was trying to get a hold of her and when buying a bridesmaid dress seemed difficult I had a lot of sympathy for her. This is when she was in the guilt/ shame stage. You could see that she knew there was a problem but she was also trying to deny it. She was lying to herself. However, since shopping isn't my area of expertise, I found it hard not to get angry when she made horrible choices (either buying something she couldn't afford or buying what she wanted and not what she needed). This feeling of anger is exactly the lack of support than many addicts experience. It comes from a lack of knowledge and understanding of addictions.

Rebecca’s best friend was supportive but was not necessarily pushing her enough to get help until the end. She was the only one who knew her level of debt and she did her best to help her with it. In the end she forced her to go to a Shopaholics Anonymous meeting. Rebecca’s family was what pushed her to become so materialistic. Her parents could have afforded to buy her nicer things but instead they were very cheap which made her feel excluded from peers. Because of this she did not want them to know about her debt problem. However, when they found out they were there for her to count on which is very important for recovery.

As I said before, I think this movie did a good job of representing triggers of an addiction. With her job and home area there was no way for her to go about her daily life without walking past shops she constantly wanted to go in. Whenever she had a meeting, interview, or event for work she felt the need to get a new outfit for it and once it was on her mind she believed it was necessary. I do not think that the recovery/treatment part of the movie was accurately portrayed. She went to Shopaholics Anonymous and she took steps towards recovery that we have learned about but much of it was skipped over making recovery seem easy. It is important for people to know that recovery from an addiction is difficult and is a day by day process. Triggers and cravings will always be there.

I could see a direct connection between discussions in class and Confessions of a Shopaholic. Triggers were one, but I also recognized the importance of “people, places, and things.” I saw this movie as very informative and I really enjoyed it.