Monday, February 16, 2009

I'm Really Not This Cynical...

Why is it that whenever I see an advertisement for this movie I feel like vomiting?  Oh I've read the books, believe me.  Couldn't put them down.  Before I discovered the Confessions of a Shopaholic series, I never fully understood the conflicting wonders of masochism.  I'm all for living vicariously through the charmed lives of literary protagonists.  Hell, I'm even for chick lit and Cinderella stories in all forms (I know I sometimes talk like a bra-burning feminist but at heart I'm a hopeless romantic who secretly dreams in vain of motherhood).  

There is without a doubt an addictive quality to the books.  The reader gets so that she HAS TO KNOW how Becky gets out of this or that mess, and so she keeps reading day and night until the book is finished.  However, am I the only one who noticed that nothing truly bad EVER happens to Becky?  I mean, I could deal with the Luke Brandon romance; I can handle Luke being extremely wealthy and he being the perfect match for her because he can buy her all the designer shit she could possibly dream of.  I can handle that she has the cutest little family imaginable and an extremely supportive group of friends.  I can even handle that among her biggest problems are having to sell all her designer shit to pay off her debt, and having to decide whether she wants a society wedding at the Plaza or a sentimental wedding in the English countryside.  But why does she also get to move to Manhattan and have an absolutely perfect series of careers?  I mean come ON.  Her first (and supposedly "worst") job was writing for a magazine.  At age 25, for Christ's sake.  I would literally chop off my right hand if it meant I could have a semi-interesting job.  In fact, I would chop off BOTH HANDS if it meant someone would pay me to write.

Cinderella is likable because she does literally go from rags to riches - the happiness she experiences at the end of the story is directly proportional to the misery she suffers at the beginning.  Becky, on the other hand, already has a charmed life.  She needs addiction counseling, not a prince.  The overall level of happiness she experiences in life is more gag reflex-inducing than inspirational.

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