And Prada is still basking in the free advertising
The Devil Wears Prada
Starring: Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway
Rated: PG-13
2.5 Stars
To be honest, I went into The Devil Wears Prada with great hesitation. After all, Anne Hathaway, who plays Andy Sachs, a fresh-out-of-college aspiring journalist who literally sells her soul to the devil of fashion, and I have had an unspoken agreement concerning her movies for quite some time now. Hathaway can continue to make movies for the 'tween' set so long as I (holding up my end of the bargain, naturally) am not exposed to her overly exaggerated attempts at acting. I also found the book by Lauren Weisberger on which the movie is based to be quite overrated with a plot not nearly as comedic as the film's television trailers promise it to be.
I have to admit, however, that I left the theater quite pleasantly surprised. Anne Hathaway was not even given a chance to overact in her typical manner since all the characters in the movie took second place to its pi‹¨«ce de resistance: fashion. By the end of the movie, all I wanted to do was start wearing Chanel necklaces - Hathaway's character seems to have a different one for each day of the week - and the chic haphazardly belted trench coats, dresses, and skirts featured in the film. If one leaves the movie having learned nothing about its underlying theme, which I will divulge a little later, every audience member certainly learns that the seemingly superficial fashion industry is actually run by a council of meticulous men and women who are responsible for the color, cut, fabric, fit, etc. of virtually every garment we only think we choose to put on every day.
Now moving on to my next favorite feature of the movie: Meryl Streep's portrayal of Miranda Priestly, the editor of the fictional Runway magazine as well as the "devil wearing Prada." Priestly is said to be modeled after Anna Wintour, the famed editrix of Vogue, on whom Weisberger based the character after working as Wintour's assistant. While many actresses would chose to play the part as a permanently yelling and ruthless shrew, Streep graces the role with an understated yet still-vicious presence where it is what she refrains from saying that speaks more loudly than she does. Rarely raising her voice, Streep's sophisticated Miranda Priestly instead relies on a mixture of undercutting and cynical remarks perfectly befitting of the character who is supposed to have clawed her way to the top of the fashion world, sacrificing all personal and emotional relationships in order to retain her position.
While Streep does humanize the role, it is still Miranda's callous manipulation of those who admire and respect her that causes Andy to realize that she, too, has sacrificed both her interpersonal relationships (enter Adrian Grenier in a great supporting role as Andy's affable and doting boyfriend) and the one quality she has always valued most about herself: her integrity. Somewhere between dropping from a size six ("the new sixteen," according to Stanley Tucci's character) to a size four, Andy loses sight of her goals and becomes as backstabbing as Miranda herself. I won't spoil the end for those of you who have yet to read the book, but I will say that the film manages to remain a light-hearted comedy about a boss from hell while reinforcing a quality that many people climbing the ladder of success today tend to forget: integrity. Save for one superfluous Andy-contemplates-her-life-to-plaintive-indie-rock scene, I'm even reconsidering my agreement regarding Anne Hathaway movies after seeing The Devil Wears Prada.
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