NYT Defense: Dargis Reviews "Confessions of a Shopaholic"

Manola Dargis’s review of “Confessions of a Shopaholic” is soft. At least, after reading her review of “He’s Just Not That Into You” last week, I expected her to take a harder line against another film that makes fun of women using qualities that generally deflate and classify men and women into a mismatched binary. Dargis begins and ends with references to the economy, which is notably suitable to filmmakers creating this type of film. We are in the middle of a climate of crisis, and it is no secret that when things go downhill economically, the seeds holding the more traditional values (and supposedly more comforting) start sprouting, or spewing, a surplus/excess of material that “Confessions” fits into neatly. With all its “bright bauble and designer doodad” focus, I am surprised that Dargis didn’t write about the sense of hollowness that films about women and materialism must create, or about its effectiveness in leaving viewers partially numb to reality but at a price of mental vacancy. Then again, I guess the fact that I expected something different than she delivered is good. She focuses more on the story, even though it falls into a predictable pattern, she finds something worth noting—that the women, or main woman in this case, isn’t treated entirely as a fool. I wonder if being a chief woman movie critic at the NY Times, reviewing all the “women” movies, Dargis feels that any change in portrayal, any respect given to women in these types of gender-boxing films, is worth noting and seeing.