Hollywood Morality

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2006)

The Devil Wears Prada is an enjoyable movie about a New York fashion magazine called Runway. It's a good movie spoiled by Hollywood's assumption that successful women like Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep)sell part of their soul to achieve success. It implies that good girls like Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) should stick to traditional, wallflower roles if they want to be happy.
Miranda is a famous editor and a perfectionist with a genius for fashion whose judgment is respected throughout the industry. Miranda is tough and ruthless and can be brutal with her subordinates. Andy is a recent graduate from Northwestern who is looking for a job in journalism. She turns up at Runway in all the wrong clothes and is on the receiving end of some bitchy but funny diatribes. Andy is smart and slowly becomes indispensable to Miranda. Hathaway already looks like a model so the transformation from frump to fashionista doesn't take very long.
Meryl Streep avoids caricature and gives a brilliant and subtle portrayal. Miranda has paid a price for her fame and success, she is trying to bring up two daughters and has had a succession of jealous husbands. She loves her job and fights her corner. Stanley Tucci is excellent as Miranda's effeminate second in command and Emily Blunt is very good as the PA. Hathaway is convinvincing as Andy.
The plot is derailed slightly by Andy's moral dilemma. Andy is a nice girl repelled by Miranda's Machiavellian manipulations. Andy's boyfriend (Nate) is a chef who doesn't seem to work in the evenings. He complains about Andy's new work habits and fails to give her any support. As a Brit, it's well known that most top London chefs are highly strung, prima donnas who torture incompetent subordinates. Paying your dues in the kitchens of Gordon Ramsay or Marco Pierre White can make a career. Nate doesn't seem to get that working for Miranda can help Andy's career. You sympathise with successful women coping with insecure boyfriends. Miranda probably has it right when she says that everyone wants to be like her.