Book vs. Movie: Confessions of a Shopaholic

With so many books being turned into movies, I thought it would be interesting to compare the two. Sometimes the movie outshines the book or it turns out the book was so much better or they're both really wonderful. Either way, it's always interesting to see how the movie turns out, be it for better or for worse.

For my first Book vs. Movie post, I wanted to discuss one of my favorite books "Confessions of a Shopaholic" by Sophie Kinsella. I absolutely love this book!

Book:

The book centers around the main character financial journalist Rebecca "Becky" Bloomwood, who I would say was bored with her job. However something she found interesting was shopping but that was hindered by her dread of the B-word....Bills. Becky seemingly has it all: a great apartment (which she shares with her best friend, Suze) in a trendy London neighborhood, fabulous trendy friends, a closet full of the hottest clothes and a never-ending pile of bills. It's a funny and well written book that once you start reading you can't put down.

I found the characters to be quirky and interesting and I thought the story was unique. In the book you got to see who Becky was, despite hiding her shopping problem she really knew what she was talking about concerning finances. Especially, when she found out a bank had purposely mislead their customers, Becky went about trying to help them.

I thought this was such a fun and lighthearted read and even though it's fictional it shows you how not to live but in a hilarious way.


Movie:

The movie I would say was very loosely based on the book because there were so many changes that it felt like a completely different story. Where the book was funny and charming, the movie was insipidly dumbed down and flat. In the book, Becky wasn't stupid she was just a shopaholic unlike in the movie where she was a clueless idiot who couldn't do anything right. There was nothing charming or interesting about movie Becky. The movie seems to have cut out all the things that made the book such a fantastic read.

The movie was a complete disappointment. To make matters worse, they combine elements from the first three books "Confessions of a Shopaholic", "Shopaholic Takes Manhattan" and "Shopaholic Ties the Knot" to piece together this awful movie instead of taking the time to write an amazing screen play. I felt like the movie did not have a plot, it went from one silly scene to the next without the viewers seeing what made Becky such an interesting character.

Lastly, it felt like the whole movie was a total miscast. None of the actors seem right for the roles and it showed on screen.


My Verdict:

The book wins this time.

It was just a far better quality of the two. In the future, I think it would be great if they made another attempt at re-making this because it is a really good book.