It’s time for rom-com rehab
At the emotional climax of “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” protagonist Rebecca Bloomwood delivers the logic behind her titular addiction: “When I shop, the world gets better. The world is better. And then it’s not anymore, and I need to do it again.”
Although most in the theater chuckled mockingly at her declaration, I understand where she’s coming from: I feel much the same way about the recent slate of rom-coms. They certainly still provide the escapist romanticism and comforting predictability required for the genre, but there’s an undercurrent of inadequacy, superficiality and...
