Why There Will Never Be a Shopaholic Movie #2

Hard to believe this movie graced us with its presence just over 12 years ago. Long before it was made, the book written by Sophie Kinsella which introduced to the world, Rebecca Bloomwood (aka Becky) who as we all do loved to shop which hit the bookstores in the year 2000. This lovely character teamed excitement of shopping with the downside of using money wisely, and as an owner of a credit card that perhaps gets used more than it should, this book and movie combination is relatable on all levels.

As an avid reader, I cannot exactly pinpoint when I found this book (definitely before the movie premiered), but I remember browsing a second hand bookshop and saw the colour cover and just had to pick it up and read the blurb on the back. It was then I fell in love with both Sophie as a writer and Becky as the character almost immediately. She is a humanly relatable character, stuck in a job that doesn’t interest her and dreams of bigger things (just not bigger debt, which is what she gets). Imagine my excitement to realise that it was the first book in the series which now contains the following 10 titles in order of release date.

1. 2000 – Confessions of Shopaholic (also called The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic)

2. 2001 – Shopaholic Takes Manhattan

3. 2002 – Shopaholic Ties the Knot

4. 2004 – Shopaholic & Sister

5. 2007 – Shopaholic & Baby

6. 2010 – Mini Shopaholic

7. 2014 – Shopaholic to the Stars

8. 2014 – Shopaholic on Honeymoon

9. 2015 – Shopaholic to the Rescue

10. 2019 – Christmas Shopaholic

Since finding about this, I have almost all of the collection, and when the movie was released I was over the moon to see the adaptation. Quick to say I loved it about 95% until I realised this was going to be the only movie. I was devastated and to be honest I felt like there is so much more awesome material that would work in the movie setting with Rebecca getting married and all the ups and downs she has with the planning, meeting a long lost sister, and having a baby (which this book is one of my absolute favourites, and I can relate) and raising a mini shopaholic like herself. There was definitely heaps of great ideas to make a trilogy or more for the Shopaholic fans around the world.

The reason I realised in the movie, that there was never going to be more than one movie, was how they changed the some of the relationships of the characters. For example in the first book Tarkin is Rebecca’s best friend Suze’s cousin, and falls for Rebecca. But in the movie, he was Suze’s fiancé then husband. I am fully aware that movie producers and directors change aspects during book to movie adaptations, but for Confessions of a Shopaholic, sadly I think it has stopped. We can always dream what if, and who knows the stars may align one day and we may get to Isla Fisher reprise her role. Time will tell.

For now, I am happy either reading the books from the start again or watching the movie on a rainy day with my daughter. She is still too young to understand, but if she learns anything is that whatever she sets her mind too, she can achieve and the sky is the limit. Or who knows, by the time she is my age, there will be a series she will fall in love with. Whatever the case it doesn’t matter, as long as she keeps reading, I am happy.