Amusing and convincing creation but the narrative is too obvious (minor SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (3 March 2008)

In an attempt to gain experience to try and get her dream job in journalism, Andy Sachs applies for a job with fashion magazine Runway. Naïve about fashion and seeing this all as just a filler job, Andy finds herself seconding Emily as the assistant of Runway's editor-in-chief, the fearsome Miranda Priestly. While Andy tries to take it all in her stride, she sound finds herself forced to buy into the world she now works and also running to keep up with the unreasonable and regular demands of her new boss.
My girlfriend now has Sky+ and, despite the fact that she could tape anything and hold it on the drive to watch when she is home, she never does and the question still gets asked "what's on?" to the answer "nothing". So in an attempt to have a library to dip into, I recorded a handful of films  one of them being this film. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered with it, since I never did in the cinema or on video. Watching it I found it to be quite enjoyable in the same way as I had done with Ugly Betty when I could be bothered to watch that. What I mean by this is that the b1chy world of the fashion magazine is well captured and fun to view from the outside. Outside of this though, the film is not that strong particularly where it has to try and come up with some sort of plot to give the film somewhere to go.
In this regard it does rather fall down as I cannot imagine anyone is surprise to see that Andy changes, hurts those closest to her and ultimately has to re-examine herself and what is important to her. It does exactly this and it offers nothing to surprise or challenge along the way. Fortunately the world of Runaway is amusing enough to carry the film and here is where Streep carries it along. Her performance isn't the most complex of course but it s wonderfully done nonetheless, making a strong central character. Hathaway is OK and does enough to act as the fresh eyes of the viewer in this world. Blunt is a bit too stiff but I suppose this is more her character than her performance. Tucci is enjoyable but I found Baker and Grenier to be creepy and wet respectively.
Overall then a short summary of the fashion world that will save you watching the lacklustre Ugly Betty to get much the same. The plotting is weak and as a result the film can only be so enjoyable but the b1tchiness makes it an amusing distraction.