Wednesday, January 31, 2007

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Starring Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, and Anne Hathaway

The Devil Wears Prada is a funny, memorable film that’s a pleasure to watch: I also found myself continuing to think about it after I left the theatre. Meryl Streep is great as Miranda Preistly, the dominating editor of a leading fashion magazine. All her employees live in fear of her, as does the worldwide fashion industry. They hang on her every opinion and pronouncement.

Anne Hathaway is entertaining as Andy Sachs, a recent college grad who takes her first job as one of Miranda’s assistants. She’s told repeatedly that, “millions of girls would die for this job.” In fact, she finds the job very difficult. She’s become a personal slave to a judgmental, dictatorial boss who demands that she be available from the crack of dawn, all through the day, and on into the night. She comes to hate her cell phone. Meanwhile, her lack of fashion sense (or even interest in fashion) is mocked, and she slowly, in spite of herself, finds herself caring about what she is wearing and how thin she is.

Meryl Streep offers us a measured, perfectly pitched performance. She doesn’t waste a word or a look, casually and effortlessly dominating every scene in which she appears. Her performance is worthy of an Oscar.

Stanley Tucci is outstanding as Nigel, a fashion expert at the magazine who helps Andy as she struggles to fit in at the magazine and to up her fashion sense. Tucci is a genius at taking on roles and wearing them so comfortably that we forget he’s merely acting.

There’s a truth imbedded in this movie about jobs; we take them, and we may not at first care particularly about the company we’re at, or its product, but when you work with something every day and with people who care about that product every day, you start to move along with them. Suddenly, the product is important, and interesting. Suddenly, you’re one of them. (At parties, you start to tell people about your company’s product.)

There are three standout moments in the film as three different characters in the movie educate Hathaway about fashion (why it’s important, and how), commitment (what it means specifically in a job), and relationships (how to tell how much they mean to you, and a rough gauge on how they’re going).

I enjoyed this film so much that I went and bought the book it is based on. The film is lighter and funnier than the book, and the ending is more idealized. Movies are different animals than books: allowances must be made.

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