Mary Tyler Moore for the new millennium

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2006)

I reluctantly went to see this film, but came away very glad I did. While in many ways very much the "chic flick, "The Devil Wears Prada" is more than just a pretty picture.
The plot is pretty simple. Andy, a recent college graduate, manages to land a dream job as number two assistant to the editor of the top women's fashion magazine in the country. Andy, played smoothly and appealingly by Anne Hathaway, is smart, resourceful and has a kind of quiet self confidence that allows her to be good at her job, even for the most part brushing aside the highly negative comments from her coworkers, most of which center around the fact that she does not dress up to their standards. But with the help of a mentor, art director Stanley Tucci, she is able to tap into all the free clothes left around there after photo shoots and winds up looking like she stepped out of Vogue every time she steps out of the house. (Okay, that does stretch things a little, as obviously the clothes would be recognized by the other girls, who would probably whine about why they didn't get the same treatment.) The big conflict here? Andy's boss makes Mary Tyler Moore's Mister Grant look like Mother Teresa. Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, is truly the boss from hell. She is the kind of officer who gets fragged by his own men on the battlefield. But, to the film's credit, she is also portrayed as smart, exceptionally good at what she does, and a person quickly able to spot a phony a mile away.
Streep gives an Academy Award winning performance here and no doubt will get a nomination. Her work is exceptional, when you consider that in her other big hit of the year, "A Prairie Home Companion," she plays a small time country western singer and pulls that role off with equal success.
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While the film does in fact feature lots of nifty clothes for the women to ogle, it does go more than skin deep,for Andy slowly but surely finds herself sacrificing her life to this 24-7 job she has taken on, eventually losing her live in boyfriend and most of her friends, too.
And in the film's most controversial twist, she decides in the end, after watching Miranda lose her third husband in a row, that the job just isn't worth it. So, Andy symbolically throws her cell phone into a fountain and walks out -- on the limousines, the trips to Paris, the potentially big salary and the chance to rub shoulders with the rich, the famous and the well dressed.
Would this happen in real life? Maybe, but probably not. And when Meryl Streep whines that if she were a man, nobody would complain about the long hours she works, she may be mouthing feminist rhetoric, but not being truthful. The fact is, lots of wives complain about the very same thing, when their husbands are the ones who are never home or always missing the kids birthday parties. The fact is, people of both genders sacrifice their personal lives to achieve success in their careers.
Perhaps the biggest lesson of the film is found in Stanley Tucci's character, who is promised a major job with a new concern, only to be screwed over in the end because of Miranda's need to maneuver a rival into that job to protect her own position at the magazine.
That is probably the real lesson of this film. Even if you are very good at your job and even if you do work 24-7 and sacrifice everything for your career, there is no guarantee that some superior will not screw you over, because of his or her personal agenda or maybe do it just on a whim.
Unfortunately, all the pretty clothes and glamour of this film may conceal that important part of the message.