‘Shopaholic’ is Fantastical Director P.J. Hogan’s Sympathetic Ode to the American Consumer

Ever since P.J. Hogan released his debut feature film, Muriel’s Wedding in 1994, he has made films sporadically, but the few films he has directed are full of his strikingly humane character studies told through Hogan’s fantastical narrative and visual style. Hogan’s latest film, Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) contains all of the quirky characters and over-the-top farces that are Hogan’s trademarks and it’s these trademarks that lift Shopaholic above the usually unimaginative romantic comedy subgenre.

It’s no secret that I’m a P.J. Hogan fan. One characteristic of Australian director Hogan’s films that stands out the most is their feverish watchability: I could watch his films repeatedly and never get tired of them. I also enjoy putting the pieces that link Hogan’s films together and how he uses the similar parts (whether it is characters he’s used before or sentiments) in new ways to fit the story that he’s telling in each of his films. Despite seeing ads for Shopaholic hearing that it was along the lines of The Devil Wears Prada, Shopaholic fell under my radar. I wasn’t even aware that Hogan directed the film. I just recently watched Shopaholic with the knowledge that Hogan is very selective of which films he directs. I was also curious to see Hogan’s take on the modern romantic comedy subgenre. He’s directed romantic comedies before, the most famous one being My Best Friend’s Wedding, but that film was released in 1997 and it didn’t reek of the formulaic shlock that is contemporary romantic comedy. Best Friend’s is also more of a black comedy than a traditional romantic comedy. That’s where Shopaholic is different than Best Friend’s because it is more of a fluffy romantic comedy that shares similarities to the Jennifer Lopez vehicles and Kate Hudson comedies, yet maintains some of Hogan’s eccentricities.

Shopaholic is based on Sophia Kinsella’s series of novels featuring the titular character Rebecca Bloomwood. Rebecca is Hogan’s latest heroine who has to face the harsh realities of the world. Rebecca is portrayed by Australian actress Isla Fisher (who dons a nondescript, but convincing American accent for Shopaholic) (Wedding Crashers, Definitely, Maybe). Fisher’s redheaded beauty is striking to say the least, however she’s not beautiful in a sultry Rita Hayworth way, but pretty in a “turn the world on with her smile” Mary Tyler Moore way. Rebecca works as a staff writer at a lowly newspaper with her best friend and roommate. Rebecca dreams of working for high-end fashion magazine Alette run by Alette Naylor (played with regal iciness by Kristin Scott Thomas). Of course this sounds like the premise for The Devil Wears Prada, and although Shopholic is quite similar to Prada, the main character Rebecca is made to feel awkward and lowly, while Anne Hathaway’s main character in Prada seems destined to make her transformation into a show-stopping fashionista. Fisher portrays Rebecca in a way that conveys her compulsive shopping as a means to desperately fit in. Rebecca’s love interest is the Anderson Cooper-like Brit Luke Donovan (Hugh Dancy), who resembles the pompous Cooper all the way down to the socialite mother. Rebecca’s mishaps threaten her future with Luke and lead to her numerous humiliations. Rebecca is also a woman who has countless credit cards and is in debt up to her ears.

As a recent college graduate in search of a career job and success, I can relate to what Rebecca is experiencing. The real world is often a hard pill to swallow, especially when you don’t have money or beauty or money in Rebecca’s case. Money and beauty are not interchangeable—because money gives a person power even if they lack beauty—but money and beauty are intimately connected and work as a superpower when combined. Just as he did in his previous films, Hogan shows Rebecca’s fear of responsibility, which is integral to adulthood. Rebecca connects excessive consumerism with her childhood need to fit in and like Peter Pan, never really grew up; retail stores are Rebecca’s Neverland. (Hogan also helmed the 2003 live-action version Peter Pan). The fact that Hogan makes Rebecca the everyday girl who likes to shop obsessively in a suffering American economy shows once again that Hogan is very adept at injecting humanity into his films. Despite depicting Rebecca’s shopping addiction as a disease, Hogan also uses consumerism as a way to bring people together: everyone is not so different because people don’t have to purchase products to be “shopaholics” at heart. From the participants of Rebecca’s Shopaholics Anonymous group to the homeless lady who sings Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut” with her “shopping cart” in tow, everyone shares the human desire to consume attractive things. It’s the power of capitalism and capitalism is what the United States of America was built on.

Shopping is a form of escapism for Rebecca, which she admits and she often spends money on products she doesn’t need when she’s trying to avoid something that scares her. This is a childish tendency that is rooted in Rebecca’s need to feel worthy in a world that’s not so kind to those people without money. This childish tendency is a tendency that most people can relate to. Rebecca had an “unconditional love” for shopping: she never asked for the products she bought to love her back. These words mirror what Kathy Bates said in Hogan’s unconventional 2002 comedy, Unconditional Love. It’s another instance of there being a common thread linking Hogan’s films together.

Being what you are and what you want to be is the sentiment at work in Shopaholic. There’s a point in the film when someone asks “Who is the real Rebecca?” Rebecca wants to be a “rich girl” as her Gwen Stefani ringtone indicates, but she isn’t. She deals with her lack of cash flow by spending money she doesn’t have to fit the physical image of a rich girl clad in designer clothes. Hogan tackled this same topic of wanting to be what you aren’t in Muriel’s Wedding. Muriel wanted to be a beautiful, loved bride, but by attempting to achieve that goal, she wasn’t being herself and she instead lied to herself and others. Hogan’s heroines Julianne Potter from Best Friend’s, Muriel Heslop from Muriel’s and Rebecca Bloomwood from Shopaholic all lived lies and the only way to set them free was to admit the truth. Hogan makes sure his characters realize that even though they may feel “unloved, unnoticed” and “unwanted” (from Unconditional Love), pretending to be something they’re not is not the way to become loved, noticed and wanted. Hogan thinks that the world should accept their heroines as they are.

There are certain staples of Hogan’s films that are not at work in Shopaholic. As decent as Shopaholic is, if it contained more of the elements commonly found in P.J. Hogan’s films such as companionship and humiliation, Shopaholic would be a much stronger film. A strong sense of companionship is what’s missing from Shopaholic. Rebecca’s roommate and best friend Suze exists as only a prop; Suze could qualify as the “sidekick” requisite for a romantic comedy, but she barely fulfills that role. Companionship is such an integral part of Hogan’s films, namely Unconditional Love and Muriel’s Wedding; the natural need to share an experience with a fellow human. Shopaholic is a film that succeeds mostly because of great comic timing and kookiness on all the actors present, as well Hogan’s uniting of human through common interest a la Robert Altman. The unity displayed during the Shopaholic Anonymous meetings and the actual shopping scenes. Shopaholic makes crystal-clear that millions of people love to shop.

As he does in most of his films, Hogan includes pop culture references throughout Shopaholic. The male receptionist at the business building that houses companies including Alette magazine gives Rebecca some sound advice about reaching her goal of working for Alette by using a well-known pop culture reference commonly used to describe a person exploring an unknown land. The receptionist tells Rebecca that “Alette may be Emerald City, but Successful Saving may be your yellow brick road.” It’s a classic use of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz metaphor. Hogan not only channels L. Frank Baum fairy tales in Shopaholic, but he also brings to mind animated Disney classics. The mannequins that Rebecca sees move and talk in the store windows are indicative of Hogan’s knack for the fantastical. Just as Disney animated films like, Beauty and the Beast are full of inanimate objects come-to-life, Hogan knows the effectiveness of giving life to inanimate objects. Instead of everything played straight, the enlivened mannequins add a sense of surrealism that lends itself well to children and adults alike. Cinderella without the talking mice and seamstress birds would just be a woman living amongst rodents and birds swatting around her head like in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, so the talking mannequins give an edge to Shopaholic over other romantic comedies. It’s no coincidence that Shopaholic was produced by Disney-owned Touchstone Pictures.

Confessions of a Shopaholic is a romantic comedy and some might call it fluff, but it’s one of the more entertaining romantic comedies. The film is as imaginative as the romantic comedy category allows. If you’re a fan of P.J. Hogan’s previous films, you’ll find something to love about Shopaholic even if you’re not a fan of romantic comedies.