Isla Fisher in Confessions Of A Shopaholic Confessions Of A Shopaholic: What Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) does doesn't really make any sense, but she looks like a million bucks doing it. Touchstone Pictures
 

by Linda Holmes

It's Tuesday, and that makes it New On DVD Day, and the most interesting thing I've caught this week is Confessions Of A Shopaholic, which I completely ignored in theaters but is out today on DVD and Blu-ray.

Based on Sophie Kinsella's very successful series of books, Shopaholic stars Isla Fisher (she's the one who looks like Amy Adams, but isn't Amy Adams) as Rebecca Bloomwood, indebted spendthrift and all-around flibbertygibbet.

Because it's the sort of movie it is, she stumbles into a job, she stumbles upon a guy played by the very pretty Hugh Dancy, and then there is a lot of preposterous nonsense, and then there is kissing, The End. (Sorry. Spoiler? I think not.)

The only surprise is that, especially with the benefit of HDTV, it's a very pretty movie. As a story, it's a wreck, but visually, it's gorgeous. The frothy costumes were done by Patricia Field (of Sex And The City fame), and the entire film is full of bright colors and neat, geometric patterns, to the point where even a bunch of sweaters folded on a table become a still-life.

It's disconcerting to find the storytelling atrocious but the look impeccable. I can't possibly recommend the movie, because it's too ridiculous, but I'll give them this: it's stunning. And if you spend most of your time perusing the extras where the aesthetics are examined in great detail, you may well forget the story. Which would be just as well.

Also new this week:

• Waltz With Bashir, the Israeli documentary that most of NPR's critics included among their favorite films of 2008;

• Inkheart, starring Brendan Fraser and Paul Bettany, which Bob Mondello found "frenetically uninvolving";

• Pink Panther 2, which sports a truly impressive -- or, "impressive" -- 13% score at Rotten Tomatoes.

categories: Home Video

11:53 - June 23, 2009

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