Let’s me get this right out of the way right up front: I have no beef with this kind of movie or the much-maligned “chick lit” genre from which it came.
I bear no malice to either version of Sophie Kinsella’s Confessions of a Shopaholic. In fact, I’m a huge fan of light, frivolous entertainment. (I’m not even going to qualifying that statement with a face-saving “if done well.”)
No, the reason I cringed all the way through this preview had nothing to do with the movie and everything to do with the economy.
- Because it’s weird to see a department store so full.
- Because it’s weirder still to see women fighting over shoes they don’t need that they’ll then pay for with money they don’t have.
- Because when she’s desperately chopping her credit card out a block of ice, instead of laughing knowingly (I can’t control my spending either!!!) I’m rooting for her to put the whole mess back in the freezer before she ends up on the street.
- Because when she says, “You speak Prada?” I expect the camera to cut to a homeless guy who says, “No, but I used to . . . I used to.”
I realize that Confessions of a Shopaholic is a comedy, and that it’s making fun of conspicuous consumption. But the context is all wrong. Funny how you can make a solid piece of entertainment, and then the world around you suddenly makes you seem completely slightly tone deaf.
So what does this mean for you?
If you’re reading this, then I’m guessing you’re not part of the old zeitgeist. Which means you have an opportunity to be part of the next one. Confessions of a Shopaholic will probably do just fine, but two years from now we won’t be telling stories like this. We’ll be telling stories like this _________. (Where the blank goes is where you go.)
Ummmm… Confessions of a DIY Diva?
“*You* know about replacing knob & tube wiring? Wow…”
Something like that.
@Kat: LOL
How about . . .
“*You* know how to save money by making all your lunches for the week on Sunday . . . ?”
Love the blank.
I like plenty of frivolous fair–done well or not. But there are those pieces that are just don’t work in any genre.
Anyway, since I’m not a shopaholic, I was going to miss it.
I wonder if this kind of consumerism-heavy chick flick is actually going to go away with the problems in the economy. True, fewer people will be able to relate, but people will also be looking for even more of an escape in their entertainment. It reminds me of Bollywood–the masses of people in India are horribly poor, but they pay whatever massive proportion of their paycheck to watch these opulent movies set in palaces, full of ostentatious display. It doesn’t make them mad; it keeps them going.
Of course, it’s more bitter to have been close to being able to have had that life and no longer having it. Also the levels of education involved will probably tip people over to the indignant side. Still, I wonder…