As Glossy as a Magazine, and About as Substantive

Rating: 7/10 (5 July 2006)

A slick entertainment with a plot someone phoned in and a fairy tale ending in which every conceivable loose end is tied up as neatly and happily as your average network sitcom. I had a lot of fun with the movie, but my expectations were low and would have been sorely disappointed if they'd been any higher. The key to any movie like this is: "Know what you're getting."
Meryl Streep of course gets all of the praise for this film, and indeed she is a riot. She resists the temptation to play the role of Miranda Priestley as a gross caricature, and instead decides to play her as a real person, which gives the movie dimensions it wouldn't have had otherwise. The character of Miranda would have been too unbearable to be fun if someone else had played her, but Streep knows how to deliver a nasty line while letting us know she's in on the joke, and her character is by far the best thing about the movie.
Stanley Tucci, that unsung character actor, is also terrific as Nigel, Anne Hathaway's Henry Higgins. Is there anything this guy can't do?
"The Devil Wears Prada" sends an obligatory message about staying true to yourself and your priorities in life, a message the film itself undermines by making the world within the fashion magazine office seem more interesting and glamorous than anything going on outside of it.
Grade: B+