a scathing indictment of the world of fashion(true or not-but probably true)

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2007)

this movie is billed as being a comedy drama,but it is more of a black comedy than straight comedy.the movie is very sarcastic and ironic in its portrayal of the fashion industry in general,and the head of a major fashion magazine in particular.Meryl Streep plays Miranda Priestly the head of the major fashion magazine Runway.Anne Hathaway plays Andy Sachs,an eager young woman who dreams of becoming a top journalist and thinks that working as assistant to Miranda Priestly for one year will be her ticket into real journalism.Stanley Tucci plays Nigel a lifer at the company(really nothing more than a glorified worker bee,who thinks much higher of himself) who hopes to one day leave the company and have a venture of his own.Streep Plays Priestly as a scathing,ruthless,ice queen,concerned about nothing and no one but herself and the magazine.she has little time for the peons under her(who of course do all the work and get no credit).she is virtually void of emotion or human feeling of any kind.though there are a few scenes witch show there might be a human being under there.she is also shown,in a few scenes as being vulnerable and insecure,as she has a husband who treats her as she treats those around her.Hathaway's Sachs is a fashion neophyte,as naive as she is eager.time goes on and things change,of course.in time Sachs learns valuable life lessons,naturally.the movie at times is sappy and maudlin and the character of Sachs is played a bit to unreal in the latter stages of the movie.the movie filled with witty,sharp dialogue that flows very smoothly.Streep' performance is subtle and understated but bang on for her character.Tucchi's Nigel provides some dry comic relief and glimpses of humanity.Hathaway fails to make a big impact,and is really just fodder in much of the movie.the character of Miranda Priestly is purportedly based on a real person,although no one can say that of course.either way it offers a scathing indictment of the fashion industry,especially the elite.these people deserve to be skewered,and if they can't take it, they are as thin skinned as those people that work beneath them and are also accused of being thin skinned.How ironic.i hope people in the industry watch this movie and feel uncomfortable, as they should.this movie rates a solid 7/10