Jon Monsarrat review: slightly disappointing, but message could change your life

Rating: 7/10 (12 July 2006)

The Devil wears Prada contains few surprises. Obviously, it's a coming of age story where a young innocent encounters an abusive boss and has to decide how to react.
On the positive side, the acting is good, especially by Meryl Streep who simply shines in the film. There is one scene where Meryl's character forgets her makeup and it's immediately shocking.
However, the story is a slow-paced and predictable. The love interest doesn't have much to do (for once it's a male, usually women get stuck with this). It's a little silly to cast Anne Hathaway as the "fat awkward girl" since she's already beautiful and shining before her transformation into a fashionista. There's nothing fat or awkward about this actress.
The largest two flaws in the film were, for me, first (and this is not spoiling anything) the temptations of the young innocent becoming just like her boss... it didn't come across to me viscerally. Characters would comment that Andi was becoming just like her boss, shallow and kind of evil, but I don't know, it didn't work for me.
The second flaw was that the boss just didn't seem evil enough to me. Verbally abusive, nasty, unfair in judgment... this is rare enough to spark the interest? Now the boss in Working Girls, she was evil. And without spoiling anything, I can tell you that at one point in the film the Meryl Streep character does seem to have a heart. Which sort of broke the idea of the film for me, i.e. rejecting this person's personality.
Finally, despite all these comments, I really liked the message of the film. The primary message seemed to be that over-investing in a relationship for future rewards (working for a cruel boss hoping that she'll promote you to greatness) can be foolish. A secondary message is that it's easy when working closely with a dominating personality to blame yourself for silly stuff that isn't your fault. I think everyone's had a family, romantic, or business relationship with a continual complainer and it's hard not to let that get under your skin. Emerging from this and realizing "Hey I'm OK!" is a great message. This second theme is slightly lost in the film (you have to piece it together yourself).
Who should see this film:
-- If you are currently in any kind of dominating relationship and need to get a backbone and get out of it.
-- Egotistical fashionistas who will end up excusing the boss's abusiveness because "she's just trying to get ahead". Heck with ya.
-- Anyone interested in the world of fashion Everyone else, you are OK to skip it without much regret. I'll give The Devil Wears Prada a 7 out of 10 because it was slightly boring, but could potentially change your life.