Typical suburban comedy

Rating: 3/10 (21 April 2020)

The Devil Wears Prada is one of those harmless "soccer mom" comedies that is meant to make women in the audience chuckle and men in the audience go to sleep. If you liked Under the Tuscan Sun, Eat Pray Love, Bridget Jones's Diary, or other similar chick flicks that feature an extremely average female protagonist who makes tons of mistakes, has more than one attractive man after her, and somehow manages to succeed and throw one-liners at those who have wronged her, you'll love this movie. It's fairly obvious from my description of the genre that I'm not a fan, and I spent more of the movie rolling my eyes than smiling.
Anne Hathaway wants to balance a brilliant career and a wonderful relationship, but when she gets a new job as an assistant to a very demanding boss, her boyfriend Adrian Grenier starts to complain. Meryl Streep is the impossible, heartless, horrifying boss, but to anyone who's actually had a tough boss, she's not that bad. If you're the head of a successful fashion magazine, you're going to be a perfectionist. You wouldn't rise to the top if you settled for laziness, lateness, or mediocrity. She famously ends her orders with a careless, "That's all," as she dons her sunglasses and dismisses her underling. Anne finds it rude and would rather be treated more humanely. Has she never had a job before? If she's that sensitive, she doesn't belong in the workforce, let alone in the fashion magazine industry.
Emily Blunt costars as Meryl's other assistant who resents Anne's ambition. Like everyone else's, her character is one-dimensional. Simon Baker is unrealistically perfect, Stanley Tucci is unnecessarily helpful, and Emily is incapable of smiling. Yes, given the title, you can expect to see a lot of pretty clothes and accessories, but is it really worth it?