Overconfident and underwhelming

Rating: 6/10 (2 October 2006)

I didn't know what Prada was before I found out that the devil wore it. I assumed that it's: a.) some sort of material, or b.) some sort of fashion label. A quick trip to Wikipedia taught me that it is, in fact, option b.). I am telling you this so that you understand that I know nothing about fashion (and I'd appreciate those who know me to keep their comments to themselves), and I still found The Devil Wears Prada funny when it was satirising the fashion industry, but not as convincing when it played as a drama.
The Devil Wears Prada was heavily marketed as a smart comedy for a mature audience. When one boils down the plot into a one-paragraph summation, however, there is nothing ground-breaking or subversive about it. Anne Hathaway is Andrea, a wannabe journalist who lands a job as assistant to the evil Miranda Priestly (played by Merryl Streep, who looks exactly like Cruella DeVille from One Hundred and One Dalmations), the chief editor of a fashion magazine. She also works with Emily (played by the immensely talented Emily Blunt), and Nigel (the vastly underused Stanley Tucci). Andy also has a boyfriend (Adrian Grenier), and an admirer in Christian (Simon Baker), a fashion writer. Because of Andrea's initial ignorance regarding the fashion world, much of the comedy in the film's first half is fuelled by the 'fish-out-of-water' scenario. When Andy decides to take an interest in fashion (and her job), the humour dries up and gives way to an injection of drama. Which possibly may have been an overdose of drama.
Anne Hathaway is a beautiful girl, and despite the film's best efforts to make her look ungainly in the first half, she never looks ugly. Because of this, I found the change in her character during the second half very difficult to buy. While her boyfriend and friends appear to think that she has undergone a personality botox (despite her saying, "I'm the same old Andy, just with better clothes"), I just saw Andy as the same person, who managed to find one or two decent tops to wear to work. The entire melodrama that follows about Andy's deteriorating relationship with Nate and her friends is predictable and dull. The theme the film is drumming into us is that it's difficult to balance work and personal relationships, but that it's important. I must say, I'd NEVER heard that one before.
I admit that the office of the fashion magazine "Runway" is an amusing place. When Nigel first sees Andy, he asks Miranda, "Is there a before and after I don't know about?" There are also several interesting demographics that exist in the office. There are people like Miranda and Emily, who know "Runway", love "Runway", and don't care for anyone that doesn't know or like "Runway". Then there are people like Andy and Nigel, who have settled on this prestigious but (for them) unrewarding job until their real dream job comes along. There was one point in the film involving Nigel and his career that broke my heart (a moment that I shall not discuss further so that I may not spoil the surprise).
Unfortunately, once the film spirals away from comedy and becomes more of a treatise on the dangers of losing yourself in your career, the fun slowly skids to a stop. Merryl Streep is, as usual, excellent as the ghastly Miranda, and Anne Hathaway puts in another good performance after Brokeback Mountain, but the roles of Andy's boyfriend Nate and Christian didn't sit well with me. Nate seemed to be the distant, sophisticated man, while Christian seemed down-to-earth and charming (although, he crosses the line from charming to sleazy several times). The book that The Devil Wears Prada is based on was, apparently, a phenomenon. I must have missed it. What was I doing, apart from seeing hundreds of movies, studying and reading the great works of literature of our culture? And partying.
While there are moments in The Devil Wears Prada that I found quite funny, the emotional core of the film was clichéd and derivative. Sadly, despite its best efforts to avoid it, The Devil Wears Prada is just like the fashion industry it attempts to parody: slick, charming and gorgeous to look at, but ultimately superficial and, at times, annoying.