I would not call those situations social drinking. In another scene, an elderly woman at a fancy cocktail party was completely drunk and making a scene.

But the protagonist and her best friend were taking shots and binge drinking to get wasted. Adults have a drink at the dinner table is social drinking to me and I am ok with seeing that in a movie. But I am surprised that Common Sense Media's review on drinking was 'some social drinking among adults' so I feel obligated to point this out to other parents.

The movie is ok and fun, like all the others in this genre. I was truly confounded by CSM's review of this, whose main complaint was that it makes shopping sprees look like a bad thing-which means they don't like it because it DOESN'T glorify materialism! Um, what? If you want to read my more detailed Amazon review, search for 'a shopaholic's review' and it's the one by Tawny Madison. Though of course there are plenty of other ways to learn those lessons-but if they are leaning toward being materialistic, this could be really helpful. So, if you watch this WITH your teen, and discuss these things, it can teach them some lessons. It is all couched in a silly plot and a ton of slapstick humor which can make it seem too fluffy (though I personally enjoyed that). It also shows the pitfalls of consumer credit, and even how underhanded debt collectors can be. So this movie is not just shallowly poking fun it does show how much havoc this can wreak in your life, as well as the fact that material possessions should not be what define you. As the movie progressed I was surprised at how much I could relate to her. It's of the heroine as a girl with her practical mom getting her ugly but cheap shoes, and this exact thing happened to me with shoes, clothes, and my first pair of glasses. I myself have a spending addiction, and I actually had to pause the movie and go cry at the very first scene. Far from glorifying it, the big takeaway message is supposed to be that it can totally wreck your life, as it did the main character's!Īnd that brings me to why this is a very worthy movie. Second, the message of this movie is that overspending is NOT a good thing. Thus the heavier drinking, under-the-sheets scene, and the addiction that the movie centers around.

This is clearly a very genre-typical rom-com for WOMEN, as is the book it's based on. Before saying why I think this movie is well worth watching, I want to correct some misunderstandings about this movie.įirst, this is NOT a movie 'aimed at tweens.' I LOVE the Young Adult (YA) genre and have enjoyed countless YA books and movies, and this movie is NOT YA.

Confessions of a shopaholic book series