The Devil Wears Thin and Less Hot than Hell

Rating: 3/10 (23 July 2006)

Today I went to the Broadway Mall in Hicksville where my husband and I ate a big lunch at the food court just before heading to the movie theater adjacent to the food court. We took our seats a half hour before "The Devil Wears Prada" came on and were the first ones there. Then came groups of women after women, and I felt that my masculine-minded husband would be obviously uncomfortable at a chick flick where he could have been the only man in the theater. And he was while watching the movie with a blank stare on his face. But wait. Before showtime, two other men came along, and they were elderly men with their wives who wanted to see the movie. My husband was really the only young man in the theater. All the other patrons were women who felt it was better to leave their husbands or boyfriends at home, or groups of teenagers. During the movie, there was barely any laughter in the audience.
I never read the book, and I am not so much a fan of "Chick Lit," but I thought that "The Devil Wears Prada" was going to be a funny, sexy, fast-paced, smartass "Chick Flick" in the tradition of "Death Becomes Her" (That starred Meryl Streep as well in a wickedly funny comic performance as a self-centered 40ish actress working well opposite Goldie Hawn, the queen of funny middle-age chick flicks) and "The First Wives Club" (again with Goldie Hawn, taking it all as a faded screen diva). Instead we see Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway playing blunt, expressionless women in a slow-paced vehicle which makes good use of New York and Paris cinematography, but nothing else.
Streep as Miranda Priestley, the Cruella De Vil-type editor in chief of "Runway" and Hathaway as Andrea "Andy" Sachs, a Northwestern University graduate and Miranda's newest employee, don't shout insults or go head-to-head against one another at all in this movie. Occasionally, Miranda will throw down fancy clothes at the preppily dressed Andy on her desk. Miranda takes terrible advantage of Andy. So does Emily (British actress Emily Blunt), the first assistant of Miranda. Then Emily suffers her fate from job stress by getting hit by a cab, leaving Andy for the difficult task as working with Miranda in Paris for the most important fashion week of the year.
Being the good girl she is, Andy does everything she can to please Miranda to keep her job to the point of getting two manuscripts of a Harry Potter book for Miranda's young twin daughters. Andy's friends and boyfriends are put off by the sudden change of Miranda from size six preppy clothes to her size four glam model outfits. That leads to a friendship with a guy from a rival fashion magazine who has a crush on her, and although they don't kiss, she and her regular boyfriend temporarily break up. Also breathing over Andy's shoulder is Stanley Tucci as Nigel, Runway's obsequious fashion director, who encourages Andy to be a slave to Miranda and also does everything to please Miranda as well. No matter how well one does a job for Miranda, it's just not enough.
So do not expect any physical comedy, quick-witted quips, hair-pulling, bickering or any other banter. "The Devil Wears Prada" is a very quiet, almost too quiet, nap inducer where Streep and Hathway show emotions internally rather than externally and act very suppressed. In the movie "Nine to Five," Dabney Coleman was a devil of a boss who really let it hang out, and all of Coleman's nasty characters do just that. Not Streep as Miranda Priestley. She would talk in a flat monotone and get orders out more subtly. Also in "Nine to Five," Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton were the secretaries who'd loudly wreak merry vengeance on Coleman, their meanie boss. Hathaway, a soft-spoken actress who stars in many gal movies, would act submissive and then leave her. As the proverb goes, "Living well is the best revenge."
I did look at my husband from time to time to see if he would fall asleep. He didn't, but he would stare at the screen with a blank stare and his eyes looks as though he could fall asleep and snore. I didn't fall asleep, but I found myself yawning in spots. No wonder such guys like my husband should be left at home from slow moving "Chick Flicks."
"The Devil Wears Prada" may sound like a spark-flying sitcom, but it is really plays like a TV dramedy.