A Wasted Effort

Rating: 5/10 (20 January 2007)

Have you ever seen a film with more talent than it knew what to do with, a plot that's worked a hundred times, and was based off a popular source that still failed? Here's your opportunity to see such a film if you can't think of another time it's happened.
Why does it fail? What possible reason could I have for saying that a film which made a good profit at the box office, earned Golden Globe nominations (and will likely earn an Oscar nomination for Streep) failed? Simple. There was only one character in the entire movie whom I liked. I hated Miranda (Meryl Streep) almost as much as I hated Andy (Anne Hathaway). The only character I liked was the wry Nigel, Miranda's charming and loyal assistant played wonderfully by Stanley Tucci. And he was only a minor character, with too few scenes.
Nigel was the one dose of humanity and rationality, and he saved this movie from it being my lowest rated film of the year, narrowly being beaten out by Scary Movie 4. At least I knew I was getting crap when I saw SM4. I expected more from The Devil Wears Prada, considering the reviews and talent involved.
In the beginning of the film, Andy is a naive small town girl who goes to NY to become a journalist. She gets an assistants job for a fashion magazine, even though she knows nothing about fashion and doesn't care about it, either. She's just doing it, in the beginning, to open some doors.
Only she gets corrupted by the industry she was so apathetic about, and gets so sucked in that she abandons her friends and boyfriend (who isn't developed enough for me to care about). She's so far gone, that she ignores an opportunity to do journalism when it's practically thrown at her.
So why does Andy throw everything away from something she doesn't even end up wanting (a career in journalism)? Because she wants to prove her boss, Miranda, wrong. That's it. Miranda is hard on Andy, who almost quits. But after coming to the realization that she hasn't "given it her all", she redoubles her efforts and becomes the best assistant ever.
She stabs her colleague in the back (and goes to Paris in her place). She leaves her boyfriend and sleeps with another guy (while she's drunk, and after she says 'no' a few times). She abandons her friends and family. All for a job she initially didn't care about, and which she really never cares about. She does it all for Miranda.
Yet we're given absolutely no logical reason why she should care so much about Miranda, a woman who never gives her any respect, isn't remotely likable, and goes out of her way to make the lives of her assistant hell.
By the end of the movie, I wanted to throw something at my TV and scream, "you've lost everything for absolutely no reason! You're the dumbest character I've ever seen in a movie of this much potential!"
But, alas, it would've been a wasted effort. Of course, Andy finally realizes that she'd made the wrong choices the entire time (who'd have imagined that it wasn't a good idea to throw your entire life away for something you didn't care about?), and made up with her boyfriend (who was wooden, shallow, and undeveloped).
Final analysis: avoid.