See it for Emily Blunt!

Rating: 6/10 (13 December 2006)

I didn't read the novel but I suspect it must have had a little more of a bitchy bite than this film, which has been de-clawed into a fairly generic romantic comedy that is both defective and predictable, instead of the tell-all film-à-clé it should have been. Meryl Streep is at her best and fascinating to watch at all times. Stanley Tucci's part works. As is usual in today's Hollywood, some decent scenes were cut in a last-minute dumbing-down frenzy and found their way on the DVD extras. Everything else (except the fashions) is in the dumps, especially the heroine's love affairs, which are muddled, maudlin and by-the-numbers and soundtracked with debilitating pop tunes. (I didn't think I would survive the scene where Andrea's boyfriend actually sulks because of a missed birthday or the one where an on-the-rebound one-night stand morning after turns into Exposition Device Central.) Anne Hathaway looks at all times like an uncomprehending cross between a young Liza Minnelli-faced puppy and a lobotomized, siliconed and puffy-lipped Audrey Hepburn clone. But the film, by and large, belongs to a British newcomer named Emily Blunt who turns her smallish part into a work of art and whose every reaction, every word and every gesture makes you believe in the contagious toxicity of the world of fashion she has sold her soul to when nothing else can. Oscar, Oscar!!