Great Movie for Even the Fashion Haters

Rating: 5/10 (14 September 2006)

First off, it has the classic "small town, good hearted (and looking) working girl trying to make it in the greedy City" plot, which is nothing new but a good frame. Anne Hathaway, as Andrea Sachs, does a good job as a recent journalism school grad taking a vicious gopher job for a the uber fashion Nazi of all times: Miranda Priestly! Andrea is unfashionable and doesn't even recognize that this miserable job, that fashion clones would kill for, means working for the Queen of that industry. Miranda Priestly is Meryl Streep to the nines and she plays it without any camp or ham. SHe was wonderful as the cold hearted ruthless King Lear, someone who berates poor Andrea Sachs for failing to book a Miami to NYC flight for her in the middle of a hurricane. Poor ANdrea puts up with her fascist nonsense and all the superficial fashion clones as a year of apprenticeship to the Devil herself. This will open doors for the kind of journalism that she really wants to do, she hopes.
Stanly Tucci plays Nigel, the kind of stereotypical career art layout man, devoted to Runway and Miranda, but with a heart of gold, in a totally forgettable part. Best in the support department, was Emily Blount, a newcomer, playing Emily, the devil's first apprentice. She is a towheaded English prig, who became a bitch by breaking her butt trying to satiate the Devil. She is miserable and calculating but you can't really hate her as she watches Andrea rise at her expense. One of the plot points revolve around the annual Paris fashion revue. Emily would normally go with the devil, she spent weeks dieting and learning French and the names of all the nabobs. But Emily gets a cold, and the germaphobic Devil discards her in favor of perky Andrea. Andrea feels really guilty taking Emily's place in Paris, which she didn't ask for and if the tables were turned, Emily would almost stab her a shot at Paris. Then there is the plot point where she alienates her scruffy boyfriend and clique as she turns into a ambitious fashion clone. Or success is spoiling her!
The biggest attraction is the glimpse of the fashion industry. Even someone like me who hates all that overpriced couture "stuff" and vacuous super model arrogance can find it interesting. It is an industry were superficiality and appearances are everything and good character and personality are an impediment. I admire the industry's ruthless approach to the new "LOOK". Here Streep's genius shines in her role as the chief "Priest" of this underworld. It isn't just sex that makes it attractive, it is their Venusian standard of beauty and style that makes it attractive to me. After all, all the sex appeal of the industry is there to sell to the women, not men like a Bud commercial. Hollywood might get superficial, but there are a lot of interesting souls like Woody Allen, Martin Scorcese, Jack Nicholson, Robert Altman or Winona Rider. But they wouldn't flourish to well in this industry; an industry where looking good is not only everything, but a 60 hour/week job too! But the movie is nothing too heavy and is quite suitable for teenagers, but that isn't bad because it is about something that one can't take too seriously.