Devilishly Delightful!

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2006)

Make no mistake, Anne Hathaway may be the nominal star of this film, but Meryl Streep is the reason to see it. She is incredible as Miranda Priestly, the hard driving, cold editor of Runway Magazine.
The plot is very thin here: Andy Sachs (Hathaway), a recent college grad, gets a job she believes is beneath her as an assistant to Miranda Priestly (Streep) at Runway Magazine. This job is supposed to open doors at nearly every other magazine in the business, should Andy last a year. It turns out though that Priestly has a reputation as a dragon lady, and her constant demands make Sachs crazy. However, Andy eventually rises to the occasion, begins to take the job seriously and it seems she is well on her way to being a success. As she does this, she eventually alienates herself from her friends and boyfriend, as they tell her she has changed. Andy is then forced to choose between her job and her personal life. You can guess what she chooses.
Despite this, Meryl Streep is outstanding. She makes her character sympathetic, and there are times you root for her over Andy. Stanley Tucci is also a standout as Nigel, who seems to be a fashion editor at Runway. The weakness of this movie is really Andy and her friends. At the beginning of the movie Andy comes off as something of a snob. She seems to think that she is better than her job and the people she works with. If anything, we see Andy grow to become a better person because of the job, even if the activities she has to do are mundane. Her friends are an even bigger problem. They are given no real development, and spend most of their time whining that Andy isn't paying them more attention. The biggest problem though is Andy's boyfriend. He is given nothing to do except complain to Andy about her job. We are given no real reason as to why Andy should choose him over her job, except that he seems nice.
Overall though, the movie is great fluff. You won't learn much by watching it, but it is fun to see.