If “Twilight” left you wondering what might be the next thing Hollywood comes up with in a serialized franchise for women then look no further than “Confessions of a Shopaholic.” This chick flick (which everyone else at The Playlist is now sneering at me for writing about) is set for release in February 2009 and, mark our words now, you can look for it to gross big at the box office. Industry tongues have been wagging with excitement about Isla Fisher in the lead role (Jerry Bruckheimer tells Elle magazine, “God, I haven’t been this excited about an actress since I saw Julia Roberts in ‘Pretty Woman’,” thus solidifying the most frightening endorsement ever) and the movies are based on a successful, if vapid, series of chick lit novels by British author Sophie Kinsella.
It seems team ‘Shopaholic’ themselves are trying to capitalize on the “Twilight” crowd – at my theater this weekend there were special promo items being given away with each “Twilight” ticket bought. What grabbed my attention though was the new, longer trailer (embedded below). Fisher’s character, Rebecca Bloomwood, is something of a twit with a money problem as you’ll quickly see. The dialogue and plot look thin to anemic, but at about 1:30 into the trailer it becomes apparent Fischer is bringing her A-game in terms of physical comedy.
There’s always the chance that she’ll end up just repeating the characteristics of crazy Gloria Cleary from “The Wedding Crashers” but that might not be a bad thing. We’re not sure Fisher can carry a stinky chick flick like this one into good territory, but it looks like she’s working hard to make it at least bearable.
As is required by all chick flicks in the wake of “Sex and the City,” Patricia Field presents her personality all over this trailer as costume designer so you can expect Fischer to look like a red headed Carrie Bradshaw. Don’t expect much from the music either – this trailer features an entire radio playlist of songs by female artists from Beyonce to a watered down cover of The Temptations “Get Ready” and several other generic girly songs no one knows or cares about.