Confessions of a Shopaholic

Sex and the City meets the credit crunch in this frothy chick flick starring Isla Fisher as a ditzy New Yorker who can’t stop shopping. Fisher’s wannabe fashion magazine writer Rebecca Bloomwood is hooked on buying stuff from the city’s designer stores – which has given her a mountainous credit card debt. Thanks to a typical rom-com fluke, though, she lands a job writing a savings advice column for a financial magazine under the pseudonym of ‘The Girl in the Green Scarf’, but her addiction to Prada and Gucci and other posh labels threatens to derail her career – and her budding romance with Hugh Dancy’s dreamboat of an editor.

Confessions of a Shopaholic - Hugh Dancy&acirc;&euro;&trade;s Luke Brandon sweeps Isla Fisher&acirc;&euro;&trade;s Rebecca Bloomwood off her feet

Confessions of a Shopaholic may satirise Rebecca’s shopping obsession, but with the same costume designer as The Devil Wears Prada and Sex and the City, it’s clearly as much in thrall to big brands as she is. Yet even though you’ll probably want to give Rebecca a slap, Fisher remains an appealing comic star. Like Fisher's heroine, PJ Hogan’s film – based on British author Sophie Kinsella’s chick lit series - is bubble-brained but fun, if you can stand the glossy consumerism.

(Released 20th February)

Confessions of a Shopaholic - Isla Fisher plays shopping-addicted New Yorker Rebecca Bloomwood

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.