Even stock characters can't make Paris look bad.

Rating: 6/10 (3 July 2006)

The talented and beautiful Anne Hathaway looks fabulous as a wannabe journalist in this bit of fashion fluff. Meryl Streep, wonderfully bitchy as the editor-in-chief of a major fashion magazine, delights in tormenting her assistants with impossible requests, but even Streep can't save this soap opera. The plot is obvious from the moment Streep hires Hathaway, the "fat, smart girl," as her second assistant. (If Hathway is fat, there is no hope for the rest of us.) Every character, from Hathaway's naive ingenue to the gay fashion director, catty first assistant, shallow "hero" writer, and college boyfriend, has stepped straight out of Screen writing 101. The frantic editing leaves little time to enjoy the marvelous clothes although Paris, as usual, looks fine. Beautiful to look at but ultimately vacuous, "...Prada" left this viewer feeling stuffed with cotton candy.