Average film, great acting

Rating: 7/10 (12 February 2007)

I may be missing something in this film (I suspect that my gender excludes me from the target demographic) but I saw it receive almost universal gushing praise on release, so thought I'd give it a go. And? Well, it's really pretty average, overall. Actually, in fairness, it can be looked at in two ways. First, the bad. The plot is flimsy, the message obvious, the structure by the numbers. It is a glam episode of Ugly Betty, but with no ugly people (at one outlandish point Anne Hathaway is called "fat"?!) stretched to just under two hours. Nothing surprising happens at any stage. However, it is worth watching thanks to the good bits  the cast. Hathaway is very good and very watchable, if not massively convincing when in the dowdy phase. Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep, on the other hand, are both tremendous, with Streep excelling, and deserve the plaudits they received. Stanley Tucci is a little one dimensional, but also very endearing in his role. On the whole, this is an average film in which not much happens and is meant for a female audience, but the acting is of a high calibre so film fans in general could do worse than give it a spin.