Devil Wears Prada Movie Review

Rating: 6/10 (26 September 2008)

Heels, heels, boots, heels, heels. The first five or so shots of The Devil Wears Prada (2006) makes up a montage of shoes. Might this movie be about fashion? It seems that way based on the fact that, after the footwear, the camera tilts downward from the top of a street sign somewhere in New York, slowly surveying the entire setting until the view hits the street. Location is obviously important to this film  New York is a huge part of the fashion industry in the United States. A contrast to the expanse of the background, the protagonist is introduced as an ant in the big city. (Several long shots are used to show how the character is interacting with her environment). We follow her, Anne Hathaway of Princess Diaries (2001), as she goes on her way to what appears to be a job interview. Dressed drab, she enters a building that is quite the opposite. It is crisp and trendy and grand. The new "Princess," Andrea, looks lost in a world of know-it-alls, and the Queen of them all seems to be Meryl Streep (Death Becomes Her (1992)). Streep, whose character is Miranda, is the focus of all the fancy, demanding, and receiving, the attention of everyone around her. She is condescending and superior and does not seem to have any taste for the taste of her potential employee. Andrea's hair is down and unimpressive from the time she interviews at Runway, the fashion magazine, to the time she sits down with her friends to dinner that night. She doesn't have the look or the passion for fashion, but this job is something that can take her somewhere. She helps Miranda to realize how much she wants it and that she could be the right person and as they say: "against all odds;" the Runway job is hers and the topic of conversation as the next scene is set. Centering on a dinner table surrounded by Andrea and her friends, the scene portrays the lives of young adults trying to get ahead, or at least a job, in the world. The camera circles around the table, as if to show the circles their minds are running around in trying to settle on a career choice. This underlying theme continues throughout the movie, and brings us back to Andrea's particular story. The poor girl is struggling with her job at Runway and making us wonder whether or not she's going to make it. She is being pushed to her furthest limits with Miranda's demanding character. Symbolically, the shoe concept that we saw in the first scenes reappears as this struggle ensues. Shoes are, in fact, the first part of Andrea's transformation, stage one in the process of becoming an accepted member of the company. Nigel, a fellow employee, shows the helpless newbie that looking the part is key  even if you are just doing the coffee runs  and accordingly offers her a pair of classy heels. The Devil Wears Prada (2006) depicts, both in a mocking and defensive way, a world where girls are known for what they look like. The best advice in such a world: Dress well, girls. Be lucky enough to be born with good looks or take your intelligence elsewhere. It won't do anything for you at a fashion magazine. Perfect to exemplify this: Nigel nicknames Andrea "6," which amazingly, is her clothing size. As he says, dripping with sarcasm, "That's really what all this multi-billion dollar industry is about, isn't it? ...inner beauty." The Devil Wears Prada (2006) conveys the ways to get to the top  in a career, in your personal life. Particularly, it exemplifies what might be the wrong way to do it. (In an act of foreshadowing, a tub with lifeless mannequins rolls by Anne Hathaway at the beginning of the movie.) It attracts all age groups and keeps them interested, too, encompassing a real-life issue and displaying it in great cinema. This movie is about change, a makeover, and it's about how to determine whether or not the change you've made is the one to stick with.