Confessions of a Shopaholic is the right film in the right place at the wrong time. With credit well and truly crunched, and our belts tightened to the point of cutting off the nations monetary circulation, it’s hard to muster sympathy for a spend-happy, romantic comedy heroine who is undone by her passion for shopping.

She juggles 12 credit cards, racking up debts of around $16,000, yet somehow still clings on to her apartment, her dream job, Mr Right and the love of family and friends. The message of P. J. Hogan’s movie is simple: greed is bad, but will never get in the way of a beautiful young woman getting her fairy-tale ending. Adapted from the books The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Abroad, by Sophie Kinsella, this bouncy romp follows one fun-loving girl’s journey of self-discovery in New York City, where designer couture is always one swipe of a credit card away.

Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a journalist with a singular dream: to work for fashion bible Alette and its ultra-stylish French editor, Alette Naylor (Kristin Scott Thomas). Unfortunately, the job she wants is nabbed by bitchy staffer Alicia Billington (Leslie Bibb) so Rebecca decides to climb the corporate ladder by landing a job instead at sister magazine, Successful Saving, under the new direction of charismatic editor, Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy).

Rebecca’s quirky interpretation of financial journalism in a column entitled The Girl With The Green Scarf is like a breath of fresh air and the magazine's stagnant sales sky rocket. However, there is a dark secret, which Rebecca is keeping from Luke, her colleagues and even her parents (John Goodman, Joan Cusack): she is a shopaholic and has maxxed out all of her credit cards. The situation is so desperate, debt collector Derek Smeath (Robert Stanton) has been hired. Flanked by roommate Suze (Krysten Ritter), Rebecca spins a web of lies to hide the truth but Smeath slowly closes in on his prey.

Confessions of a Shopaholic is an entertaining piece of fluff, which proves morality is invariably stampeded under the feet of shoppers who smell a bargain. Fisher is luminous in the lead role, oozing sweetness and charm and demonstrating impeccable comic timing, especially in a dance floor sequence where her hilarious, virtuoso performance with a handheld fan has to be seen to be disbelieved.

Dancy bumbles and blusters his way through a role that would fit Hugh Grant like a glove, while Cusack and Goodman bring an eccentricity and warmth to their caring parents, the latter telling his daughter: “Your mother and I think that if the American economy can be billions in debt and still survive, so can you.”

Just once, it would be refreshing to watch a cinematic vision of the future filled with Utopian dreams rather than dystopian nightmares. If all we’re heading for are doom, gloom and global catastrophe then why bother planning for tomorrow when we could just live for today? Cast aside gritty, realist dramas and probing documentaries and plug into an endless cycle of cutesy animation.

Then there would be no place for a film like Push, a suspense thriller set in a grim, foreboding future and penned by David Bourla, in which the most gifted among us are lab rats for a shadowy G overnment agency known as The Division. This covert organisation rounds up psychics for the express purpose of creating an army capable of controlling every thought and event.

Those unwilling to participate are eliminated. Unfortunately, top-secret experiments to boost the powers of the psychic warriors using a genetically engineered serum always result in death. No one has survived . . . until now.

Nick Gant (Chris Evans) is a second generation “mover”, or telekinetic, who has been on the run since Division Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) murdered his father. He finds refuge on the streets of Hong Kong, hiding from the “sniffers” who are trained to track down his kind and bring them to Division. When his location is compromised, Nick plans to flee the city, only to meet 13-year-old Cassie (Dakota Fanning), a “watcher” or clairvoyant, who needs help to retrieve a case containing $6m.

To find the cash, she needs Nick to locate escaped “pusher” Kira (Camilla Belle), the only person to live through Division’s experiments, who is able to get inside people’s minds and plant false memories. Sceptical at first, Nick eventually agrees . . .