5 Essential Things We Can Learn from Confessions of a Shopaholic Movie

I've only read Sophie Kinsella's “Shopaholic and Sister” and it tickled my funny bone already. Kinsella is a funny writer and when the first book of the Shopaholic series reached the big screen in 2009, guess what? I wasn't able to watch the movie. Lame.

But that doesn't make me less of a fan, so when I watched the movie a few years after it was released, I've had a couple of realizations that I'm sure you'd be nodding in agreement.

They are:

Diamonds are not just the girl's best friend. Banks and investment commercials have constantly told civilized mankind that credit cards are our life-savers in times of financial needs. Want to buy that aztec printed dress that is 50% off? What about those signature shoes with killer heels that every woman in office would hate you for having? Even if you don't have money, you can have them! Just swipe those magic cards, honey and you can get all you want even if you don't need them! But problems arise when a plethora of debt-related love letters haunt you in your doorsteps, just like what Rebecca Bloomwood had! You sure don't want to experience this kind of nightmare, so I suggest don't get too overwhelmed with the instant relief credit cards can give you. In the end, credit cards can even be your greatest woe.

Take Luke Brandon for example - the editor of “Successful Savings” who Rebecca always thought had poor taste on clothes. But not until she shopped for him for an upcoming party that she proved herself wrong. The brooding man, being the son of a famous socialite, speaks PRADA, leaving Rebecca gobsmacked! “You speak Prada?” “Occasionally,” Luke replied in a teasing way. Imagine your super smart and good-looking boss speaking a language you never imagined him to know. That's a major turn-on!
Lesson: Don't judge a book by its cover!

Though completely impractical in the eyes of rational men, Rebecca purchased an underwear at Marc Jacobs for a staggering $200! But fret not, classy women know where to invest their money, and underwear is unfortunately one of those things. ;)

This is probably a cliché, but it's also one lesson many of us fail to realize. I hate to be melodramatic, but this is a painful fact we all have to deal with: We are not defined by the Gucci bag or by the million dollar watch sparkling in our wrist. When Rebecca's father offered to sell the mini bus to help her pay her debt, Rebecca said “The van defines you”. But her father replied, “Nothing defines me except me and your mother.”

This sends us to a reality check and ask questions like: “Have I totally defined my self-worth with the things I possess?” or “Do I feel inferior when my colleague got himself the latest phone model?” or “Will my world go crashing down when all of what I have are burned in a fire accident?” If your answer is a “NO”, then Congratulations!, you don't let things define you. Hala, Bigyan ng jacket!

Not only did Cinderella freed herself from debt after having a garage sale, she also got her Prince Charming in the end! (Predictable, I know, I know) It's the typical happy-ending fairy tale we all want, but as closing credits were running, Rebecca said in a princess-like tone what seemed to be the biggest revelation in her life yet: “Instead of a relationship with credit cards, have a relationship with someone who loves you back and doesn't decline you.”

Witty metaphor! Because of this, my unlikely ambitious dream of marrying a super smart, good-looking boss had resurrected from the dead! It sends any girl a message that it's okay to drown in debt for as long as you find yourself a Luke Brandon, you'll be alright. As long as you work in a magazine and have a boss like Hugh Dancy, you're gonna have a happy-ending. As long as you have a green scarf that serves as an extension of your psyche, you're not damned.

I love the movie even if I do not identify myself with Rebecca at all. (I live under a "sufficient" income so materialism is a mile away from my radar) I love it because Rebecca personifies the many other women (and men) who are impulsive in shopping and are bereft of wisdom to figure out "needs" from "wants". I love it because it reflects man's desire to acquire "this" because possession means power. I love it because it tells us that even if we have been humiliated in public and have reached the rock bottom of our lives, we can still start anew as long as we know which ones to let go of.

Even if the film generated poor reviews from movie critics, I still think Confessions of a Shopaholic is a movie worthy of a chance to be seen by everyone, regardless of socio-economic class (CHOS!). Though it's screenplay does not have the strength that of a Quentin Tarantino's and Woody Allen's, the movie has fairly conveyed a message that we can all take with us as we grow old: Cost and worth are very different things.

I still haven't given up on the idea of meeting my own version of Hugh Dancy, though. Someone who would find all means to return to me the scarf I chose to sell. It's corny, but admit it, you also felt kilig at the last part! WAAAAAHHHH! PAAAAK! CHAROT! CHARIZARD! CHARO SANTOS! YUN NAAAA!

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