The Devil is in the details

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2006)

With "The Devil Wears Prada," there's finally a comedy geared toward women that is about career and workplace problems, not just romantic complications. Granted, most of us aren't personal assistants to universally renowned, universally feared fashion magazine editors, but the movie works well as a wish-fulfillment fantasy mixed with a "be careful what you wish for" message. The movie's central questionwhether naïve Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) will give in to the ruthless, manipulative ways of her boss Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep)certainly doesn't apply only to the fashion industry.
Unfortunately, "The Devil Wears Prada" does slip into romantic-comedy cliché too often for it to live up to its potential. It makes it seem like there are only two available, straight men in the world for Andy to choose from: her scruffy chef boyfriend and a famous, smarmy writer, neither of whom are very interesting or likable. In fact, the movie suffers whenever it shows Andy's old friends: these characters are just as judgmental as the denizens of the fashion world, but much more boring.
The workplace scenes are fresher and more lighthearted, full of eye-popping fashion, scheming competition, and Miranda's outrageous demands. There are good performances from Emily Blunt, as a snooty but neurotic fashionista, and Stanley Tucci, as the sympathetic art director who gives Andy her obligatory makeover. (At heart, this is a movie about temptation, and the loads of free designer clothes that Andy gets would be enough to tempt anyone.) Hathaway has trouble making Andy's extreme naiveté at the beginning of the movie seem believable, but once the character comes into her own, the actress does too.
But Streep, as Miranda, steals the show. Though her delicate features and soft voice might seem innocuous, Miranda is ultra- perfectionistic and cunning, with a sense of world-weary entitlement. Yet we're allowed to see more than her devilish exterior: the movie wants us to realize the sacrifices that Miranda has made to get where she is. It is a testament to Streep's performance that at the end of the movie, you feel not elation that Andy has escaped the Devil's traps, but a kind of pity that Miranda is caught in a trap of her own making: doing her job well requires her to be heartless. Her trademark designer sunglasses and chauffeured car may shield her from the ugliness of the outside worldbut they also imprison her.