xtnshun's Blog

"Confessions of a Shopaholic" (quality rating: 6 out of 10)
Director: P.J. Hogan
Screenplay: Tracey Jackson, Tim Firth, based on the Sophie Kinsella novel
Cast: Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Joan Cusack, John Goodman, John Lithgow.
Time: 1 hr., 45 min.
Rating: PG (some moderate vulgarity)

Hey, I kinda liked this. One of the chickiest chick flicks I've ever seen, I'll not go with the critical community which is generally calling it air-headed and valueless.

Uh-uh. What I liked about "Confessions of a Shopaholic" is, first of all, the overwhelmingly, effervescent and infectiously sparkly. Isla Fisher who does a full-capacity performance in an ambitious film that roams and romps over the high-end Manhattan magazine publication and journalism world in substance and style that keeps you on-edge, off-edge and almost always smiling. True, it's not all that convincing in the rapid, bumbling-upward career launch by its heroine in the cutthroat competitive world of New York publishing but give that a shrug. That's not the film's breath and blood.

The film does test your patience. Although in its vibrant, sizzling opening it sprays the screen with chick energy in quick clips of frenzied shopping-based action, the number and variety of shrieking women, plus a cat fight or two, pushes the film toward slapstick. Still, it's well-managed and leaves Isla Fisher with a reasonable amount of dignity. She is a very talented comedienne and her antics in this film, in the impressive visual dynamics offered by director and editor, come off quite fascinating, at least at the beginning. But the portrayal of pulsating wackiness of women in the throes of shopping ferocity in energetic images, sometimes almost in montage, cannot sustain itself past halfway in and the film does find itself scrambling for material to maintain its peppery energy.

As to how convincing it is in the matter of the shopaholic, well, it's a hilarious yet sad concept, and the sequences of the Shopaholics Anonymous meetings is pretty funny, especially when she starts to actually subvert them.

Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher), is a grand embodiment of seemingly patholically acquisitiveness, a self-managed princess who pontificates openly that, from childhood on, her goal in life went on a laser course to get a credit card and a belief that "A man will never love you as well as a store."

When it comes to shopping she is, in every sense of the word, an addict. As with an alcoholic or a gambler, this addiction has her buried in debt. What's her dream ideally? She'd like to work for a major fashion magazine. And she knows exactly which one, but they're not welcoming. But what does happen quite by accident is that she inadvertently gets a job as advice columnist for new financial magazine, Successful Saving, a money mag run by handsome young Britisher Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy). Like wow, she's an immediate celeb. Still, her drowning debt is poised to destroy her career. She is forced to face herself down and re-order her life's choices.

Still, her new success is encouraging even though she hasn't the vaguest understanding of finance and she's supposed to give advice in the column she writes.

Meantime, to add some spice, a relentless dorky debt collector (Robert Stanton) keeps tracking her down -- she explains his presence as a "stalker."

It's hard to say if you or you or you will enjoy this. Just take it as a possibility and have fun with it.

Movie Mama Rating: 3 out of 5
Recommended For: Elementary school age and above
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ciaran Hinds, Anna-Sophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, Carla Gugino
Directed By: Andy Fickman
Running Time: 1 hr. 40 min.
MPAA Rating: PG for sequences of action and violence, frightening and dangerous situations, and some thematic elements.
Genre: Family/Action

Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson) is an ex-convict turned taxi cab driver, trying to turn his life around and walk the straight and narrow. He finds himself thrown into an encounter with two strange teenagers, Sara (Anna-Sophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig), who request a ride. But as soon as Jack takes the fare, his life turns into a blur of car chases, shoot-outs, and explosions. When Jack finds out the truth, that Sara and Seth are aliens trying to return to their home planet, he must decide whether or not to risk his life to help them.

The beginning of Race to Witch Mountain will trick you into thinking it's not a family film. Shots of UFO sightings coupled with realistic media and political coverage give the feel of a true action flick, which will make parents sit up and take notice. However, it might seem too real and unsettling for younger children who would be frightened by the idea that aliens are real and visit our planet on a regular basis. Regardless, Race to Witch Mountain is very much a family film--great for mom, dad, daughter, and son. Most of the action scenes seem to have come straight out of a summer blockbuster, especially with Dwayne Johnson in the lead. There are a few phony, old-school stage effects, and the cinematography seems immature at times. If parents can look past these faults, as well as a few instances of awkward acting and dialogue, they may be just as entertained as the kiddos.

As far as acting, Dwayne Johnson is better than I expected. Anna-Sophia Robb (Because of Winn-Dixie, Bridge to Terebithia) is excellent, like always. Alexander Ludwig does a great job, much better than his role in The Seeker. Even Carla Gugino surprised me. After the Spy Kids franchise, I had begun to wonder if she had any talent at all. Apparently she does--she just needs the right part.

PROS

Even though Jack Bruno's involvement with Sara and Seth is fueled by curiosity at first, he grows so fond of them that he becomes their protector, almost like a father figure, and does whatever he can to save them. His love for them is quite touching.

Sara and Seth believe they cannot trust any human, but learn to love and trust Jack, as well as Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino).

When Sara and Seth learn what humans think about aliens, they are surprised by such erroneous judgements. For all our science and intelligence, this made me contemplate about the vast amount of knowledge we have yet to obtain. There is so little we know about our world, so little we still do not understand. This goes for environmental things, as well as relationships with others. Take a moment to talk to your kids about false judgements and intolerances toward others. Perhaps they have made a wrong judgement about someone in their class. What did they assume about that person and why? What happened to change their mind? Was it surprising to find that the person was nothing like they expected? Family films, while not the most entertaining genre, can open a plethora of doors for conversing with your kids.

CONS

Besides the obvious action scenes, full of scary explosions, frightening car chases (Jack, Sara, and Seth almost collide head-on with a train), and gunfire, there is very little to complain about in Race to Witch Mountain. When Sara and Seth open a secret passage through an old refrigerator, Jack comments to himself, "Don't go in the pimped-out fridge." Most of the film is based in Las Vegas, so there is a general atmosphere of gambling. When the Siphon character, who is an alien out to kill Sara and Seth, loses his helmet, his disfigured "face" may frighten young ones.

Other than that, the only thing that I personally had issue with was the amount of collateral damage during several sprees of destruction caused by the story's heros. While this is common in most action movies, I feel it should be left out of family films as much as possible. However, you could use this as another topic starter for your kids. Remind them that every action has a consequence. We can't always speed away in a taxi cab, never to look back.

OVERALL

If you must go to the theater, Race to Witch Mountain is a surprisingly entertaining action film for the whole family, but best reserved for DVD rental.

Bottom Line

There's a lot of noble filmmaking intention underpinning this sweeping epic but unfortunately director Baz Luhrmann does not show enough directorial control of the material, leaving a film that is corny, sometimes silly, stunningly beautiful, but mostly lacking a cohesive narrative and theme.

The Good

The concept of this film in a Hollywood sense is highly unusual. Director Baz Luhrmann deserves credit for twisting the arm off of some studio executive in Tinseltown for allowing him to spend well over $100 million on a film that probably will not resonate with the American audience. Given that he was given the green light, it is understandable that Luhrmann wanted to put as much as he could in to the film and in this respect, the film does not disappoint. The images are bold and magnificent, the characters are colourful and larger than life, and the story is epic, covering much Australian thematic ground such as life in the Outback on a cattle station in the late 1930's, the treatment of Aboriginal children by the authorities (ie the Stolen Generations), the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese, culminating with a massive, sweeping love story between the lead characters Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) and the Drover (Hugh Jackman).

There are moments in this film that are magical, that capture the frontier spirit and the larger than life scenarios depicted. The bombing of Darwin is of course the major epic sequence in the film, but scenes of Lady Ashley, the Drover and the team moving fifteen hundred cattle across the Outback and the dangers that they face from their competitors is likewise spectacular, which is an unexpected surprise given one might not automatically think that moving cows around across a desert would be cinematically interesting. Hugh Jackman is perfect as the Drover; it's hard to believe that Russell Crowe was the original choice for this role because he would not have suited it all. The astonishing discovery of this film is young child actor Brandon Walters who plays young Aboriginal boy Nullah; not only does he have a strong gravity on screen that holds your interest but he is a born actor, conveying a wide range of emotions that you cannot help but feel sympathy for. However, the best thing about this film is the fact that it got made at all; a huge sweeping epic telling an otherwise little-known, but dramatic part of Australian history is something to be celebrated, and Baz Luhrmann deserves all the kudos for getting this film made.

The Bad

Unfortunately, director Baz Luhrmann never quite has control of the grandness of what he is trying to achieve, leaving a film that is in cohesive in terms of structure, plot and theme. In terms of individual scenes, the film works well; as a whole, it does not come close to a knockout punch because it can never decide what that punch is. Is it the epic love story? The treatment of Aboriginal children as part of the Stolen Generations? The bombing of Darwin and World War II? The harsh reality of life in the Outback (or likewise the grandeur and beauty of it)? The dark underbelly of humanity and those things we are capable of? All of these themes on their own are big and strong, but because they are not dealt with the right amount of gravity, the whole enterprise becomes two-dimensional.

It does not help either that Nicole Kidman puts in a fairly average performance as Lady Ashley. It's true she gets better as the film goes along, but the opening sequences with her character border on stupidity and silliness. Ironically, the aspect of the film designed to entice the American audience is also its most cringeworthy; the blatant use of Aussie accents. Hugh Jackman is okay, but he still gets to say "crickey" about ten times. Poor Bryan Brown and David Wenham have to really belt that accent out. It's sad that the only way Australians sell themselves to the world is through that damn accent and it definitely works against the film. Overall, Baz Luhrmann could not tame this epic beast; "Australia" is noble, but deeply flawed and the Australian Tourism Board and Film Industry were probably not wise to hope that it would revive their respective interests.