The Devil Wears Prada

Woo, alrighty.....

Well, for those of your who don't know....I got hired onto a documentary team to be videographer for some interviews and do some editing. I got hired in May, have been paid since May, but have yet to start working. I mean, don't get me wrong....getting paid to do shit isn't bad, but I'm all bored again like last summer. Lacking a purpose sucks ass, but I'm told we are going to be starting soon. Then again, they've been saying that since early June. Anyhoo.....

I saw The Devil Wears Prada last week. Good movie. Meryl Streep is genius, as always. Stanley Tucci, also genius. Anne Hathaway did a bang up job as well. Check out the new issue of Jane magazine with Anne on the cover, she is a breath of fresh air and came off as very smart, very down-to-earth and cool in her interview to promote this movie.

It's not that often anymore that I go to see a movie and get lost in it. You know what I mean, when you get so wrapped up in it you aren't checking your watch and you sometimes forget you are sitting in a theater with other people. That is a sign of a good movie. David Frankel, the director, did a great job setting up the story and creating an atmosphere of terror in all the minions at Runway magazine of their tyrant fashionista boss, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). I was surprised to see that this is Frankel's first big studio directing gig. He's mostly directed episodes of cable TV shows (Sex and the City, Entourage, Band of Brothers). No doubt, if you are familiar with movie news and yada, you already know that Miranda is supposed to be based on Anna Wintour of Vogue. Since Lauren Weisberger, the author of the book, was an assistant of Wintour's over at Vogue, we can assume Andy (Anne Hathaway) is based on Lauren. Of course, they deny Miranda is based on Wintour (more than likely for legal reasons).



Anne Hathaway plays Andy Sachs, an aspiring journalist, who gets hired on at Runway magazine as an assistant to head bitch Miranda Priestly. Andy keeps telling herself, "Stick it out for a year, then you can work anywhere you want to". She attempts to stick it out for a year because she is told if she can show on a resume she was an assistant to Miranda Priestly for one year, she can write her own ticket and work at any newspaper or magazine in town that she would like. She is not interested in fashion nor is she very thrilled to have the job, however, and is told over and over by many different people, "a million girls would kill to be in your shoes." It is clear she is not interested in fashion because she stands out from the other impeccably dressed, Jimmy Choo-ed, tweezed and Chanel-ed office staff. She starts work at Runway wearing a big, baggy blue sweater, ill-fitting tweed skirt and flat, black clunky shoes. It is also clear she is not up on fashion when she answers the phone on her first day, begins to take down a message and asks, "Could you spell Gabbana?"



Stanley Tucci is terrific as Nigel, a co-worker at Runway magazine who plays a sort of fairy godmother to Andy by making her over and giving her some moral support. Andy starts to get further and further into the thin, superficial, social climber mindset of her fellow fashionistas. She starts alienating her boyfriend, her friends and family because of Miranda's incessant and sometimes, ludicrously impossible demands (such as not understanding why Andy couldn't find her a flight out of Miami during a hurricane, expecting Andy to find the new unpublished Harry Potter manuscript for her daughters in a matter of hours, etc). Emily Blunt is also great as Emily, the snooty senior assistant to Miranda. Andy says to Emily in a very "I'm concerned about you" tone, "You look thin." Emily, obviously pleased, "Really? Thank you! I'm on this new diet....I don't eat anything, then just when I'm about to faint from hunger, I eat a cube of cheese." There is a lot of talk like this that would make the average woman feel like a hippo, like the exchange between Andy and Nigel when she first starts out at Runway.....
Andy: So the women here don't eat anything?
Nigel: Not since two become the new four, and zero became the new two.
Andy: I'm a six, what's that?
Nigel: Six is the new fourteen.

One of the things I had trouble with was that we were supposed to be sympathetic to the boyfriend and friends of Andy who get left in the dust by her career. I did not sympathize with them. Matter of fact, I found myself irritated with them that they did not understand she had to do these things for Miranda in order to keep her job. That could be because Miranda and the rest of the Runway staff were more developed as characters, because I normally find Adrien Grenier (Nate, the boyfriend) very likeable. Then again, he isn't shown a whole lot onscreen in comparison to the Runway staff and he is very scruffy. He also had the honour of the cheesiest line in the film, "I wouldn't care if you were pole-dancing, as long as you did it with some integrity." I found the female friend to be pretty whiny. Miranda was a somewhat sympathetic character when we see her in a few moments of vulnerability, such as when she is in her bathrobe without make up, quietly discussing her divorce with Andy. I hear that in the book, (I've never read it) Miranda is not sympathetic at all. She is always a shrew with no vulnerability.

Of course, inevitably, Andy is forced to choose whether she will continue on the path to becoming just like Miranda, or remember her true reason for being at Runway, to be able to work as a serious journalist. I highly recommend this movie, and judging from the message boards for this movie men seem to really like it, too.

The Devil Wears Prada
8.5/10 Recommended
See it because...Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, you want a glimpse into the cut-throat world of fashion, you love clothes....and some catty, catty humour, which I loved. (Emily: ...or do you have some hideous skirt convention that you have to get to?)
Best line...Nigel: Six is the new fourteen.
Cheesiest line...Nate: I wouldn't care if you were pole-dancing...as long as you did it with some integrity.

More ramblings to come......