The Devil Wears Prada a Pleasant Surprise

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2006)

The Devil Wears Prada I'm not a fashion geek nor am I especially into so-called "chick flicks," but I had a little extra time to kill before meeting a friend this weekend. Since I think that Meryl Streep is arguably the best actress alive today, I decided to occupy an hour and a half by buying a ticket for The Devil Wears Prada. Yes, it's a film focused on fashion. Yes, you'd probably call it a "chick flick." But you know what? I was entertained.
The titular devil is Runway Magazine editor, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). She goes through assistants like some people go through chewing gum  and she treats the girls with just about as much thought as she'd offer to a used up wad of Juicy Fruit Enter Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway) who is applying to take the place of the most recently fired Second Assistant. Andrea (or Andy, as she says most people call her) isn't into fashion, but she needs the job and she knows it will be good experience for her. But Miranda's First Assistant Emily (Emily Blunt) isn't so sure that Andy's right for the position.
Unfortunately, just as Emily is ready to send Andy on her way, Miranda herself arrives and decides that only she can hire a suitable replacement. While she also doesn't consider Andy a good fit, a brief burst of assertiveness on Andy's part wins her the chance at the job. As she jumps in to the deep end and flails around accordingly, she's repeatedly told that "millions of girls would die for" her new job. In fact, it's not long before Andy wishes she was dead.
Miranda is hopelessly demanding and impossible to please. Emily resents Andy and offers the barest possible amount of help. And Andy herself would frankly much rather be writing than hanging up Miranda's coat, buying her coffee, or delivering her dry cleaning. But she doggedly keeps trying because she's hoping her position will at least open a few editorial doors down the road.
Andy's boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier) and her friends Lilly (Tracie Thoms) and Doug (Rich Sommer) sympathize even as they're taken a little aback by Andy's lack of interest in her job. Even Doug is excited about the designers she might get to meet, and the inside gossip she might get to hear; Lilly is impressed with the perks. But Nate and Andy's father only see that Andy is on call virtually 24 hours a day at the whim of her demanding boss, and that no matter what she does, it isn't good enough for Miranda.
In a fit of despair, Andy all but decides to give up. But when she complains to co-worker and Miranda's right hand man, Nigel (Stanley Tucci), he offers her at least the beginnings of a solution. Andy determines to give it a shot. Her attitude changes and she becomes more and more competent at her job. She also, however, becomes less and less of a friend  or a girlfriend. And when she meets the handsome writer Christian Thompson (Simon Baker), Andy realizes that her chance may finally be right here, and right now. But can she afford all it will cost her to take it?
Meryl Streep is, by virtually every account I've ever heard, a nice woman. Miranda Priestly, however, will convince you that she can't possibly be anything but cold, calculating, and downright cruel. All this, and Streep never once raises her voice! While this isn't the kind of role that wins anybody any awards, Streep apparently doesn't care. Her performance is stellar.
Anne Hathaway, whose previous efforts have mostly been fluff roles (the lead in The Princess Diaries films, for example), made a point of showing her range by accepting a significant supporting role in Brokeback Mountain. With The Devil Wears Prada, she's gone back to fluff, but it's considerable fluff given her many scenes with Streep, and she does a surprisingly good job at holding up her end of the bargain. While she's not there yet, I suspect that Hathaway is capable of being formidable herself.
The supporting cast is all quite good, but special mention must be made of Stanley Tucci. His character is fussy and egotistical, yet vulnerable; he seems flighty at best, yet exemplifies stolid loyalty. Meanwhile, Simon Baker is relegated largely to the role of eye candy. That being said, he's very nice eye candy which, in a movie like this one, does count.
The Devil Wears Prada isn't anything other than what it's supposed to be, and that's a diverting hour and a half. It does offer up some life lessons for young girls (at the same time taking away from them somewhat by glorifying the very thin models and holding up starvation as a diet technique), but the one thing the movie really has going for it is the simple fact that most women of most ages, whether they'll admit it publicly or not, will probably be entertained.
FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Devil Wears Prada is rated PG-13 for "some sensuality." Everything is ambiguous enough, though, that I don't see a real problem with kids of age 11 or so and up. The Devil Wears Prada would be a pretty good date movie for the younger set, and a great flick for mothers and daughters. Drop your sons off at a Superman Returns screening though; as much as girls are going to enjoy The Devil Wears Prada, boys are going to hate it.