Minor Streep is better than none at all

Rating: 6/10 (4 February 2007)

If you have only 80 to 90 minutes to kill before you MUST be someplace else, and are in the mood for a stylish, funny film that is in some ways a valentine to every first job and bad boss in every high powered city in the world (but admitting that few are as high powered as New York), THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA is a perfect fit.
The film actually clocks in at 109 minutes, but if you are pulled away before the last quarter hour, you may remember it as a minor masterpiece.
The chemistry between top billed Streep as the fashion publisher (in what is, in reality, a strong, flashy but supporting role), Stanley Tucci as the designer, Anne Hathaway as the much put-upon assistant (who is the heart and soul of the movie) and the rest of Manhattan in support is generally outstanding, but - except for a lovely grace-note final quotation from Streep's character delivered by another character - the film as a whole simply "peters out." Actually, that "heart and soul of the film" is somewhat inaccurate. Hathaway is the heart (with Tucci and the assistant Hathaway is replacing as effective "pacemakers") - Streep is the soul. Without her, this film would just be THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS without the comedy or any Rosalind Russell comedy without Ms. Russell.
Weak finale or not, Aline Brosh McKenna's screenplay is a notable improvement over the bestselling Lauren Weisberger novel it is drawn from. Does one ever know the extent one should credit the director (David Frankel in this case) in a modern film when things go well? I'm inclined to blame him for not finding the punch for the "final curtain." In Ms. Weisberger's novel, there was never really any growth in the whining central character. In Ms. McKenna's DEVIL..., the assistant makes the real practical journey most talented people make in their first jobs - learning from tasks and unreasonable circumstances. It makes taking the journey with her fun.
Someone once said that comedy is like sex: if you don't have a climax, someone is going to come away unsatisfied. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA is fun but all foreplay.