A Crackling "Inferno"

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2006)

It's the publishing world, not the world of fashion, that Andrea "Andy" Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is pursuing when she enters the offices of "Runway" magazine. It's a detour that she thinks will lead her to a better job down the road, but it becomes the hellpit that will consume her life thanks to the endlessly demanding editor-in-chief of the magazine, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). The only guides through the rapidly moving echelons of the business are her co-assistant, Emily (Emily Blunt) and higher-up, Nigel (Stanley Tucci). Her friends and loyal boyfriend, Nate (Adrien Grenier) struggle to keep Andy grounded as she gets pulled further into Miranda's world. The result may most easily fall into the category of "chick flick", but what emerges is a sharp character-driven Hollywood comedy with some of the best performances to be seen so far this year.
As is often the case, it's the villain rather than the hero who resonates with the audience, and even with a smaller share of the screen time, this is certainly Meryl Streep's movie. Miranda is not one for tirades. She's simply threatening by being there. Any unwanted question or interruption is met with a searing look and a calm dismissal that sends the receiver crushed and scurrying for cover. Never have the words, "That's all," been uttered with so many variations of menace and meaning. This is used even when referring to the task of finding a plane and pilot to fly her out of Florida in the middle of a hurricane so she can make her daughters' recital. Eventually, we do get to see another side of this "devil", and although the veneer of ferocity is broken, Streep briefly illustrates a woman of great dignity and pride. It brings to mind the Twain remark about how every story has two sides, and as weak a case as it might be, how many of us have ever heard the devil's version? (We'll all be hearing about this one again at Oscar time.)
However, make no mistake that Streep's Miranda is the Mephistopheles to those who are under her watch, and the rest of the cast is constantly scrambling to avoid her wrath. Anne Hathaway stands apart from most of her co-tweenie entertainers with consistently solid performances in varying projects, and here, she fills Andy with believably alternating doubt and hope as she struggles to reach her conflicted goals of pleasing Miranda and just surviving her. Emily is a shallow sycophant who takes pleasure in lording her experience over Andy while clinging to her dream of making contacts at the Paris Fashion Week. However, when disaster strikes, Emily the actress shows that pain runs deep no matter who you are. The only voice resembling friendship from inside of the Runway offices is Stanly Tucci's Nigel, whom Emily reaches out to in frustration when effort after effort seems to fail to get Miranda's approval. Nigel gives her a helping hand, but what he really succeeds in doing is leading her further down the rabbit hole. He's been a part of Miranda's world so long that he cannot see a way out even for himself.
Director David Frankel has made a world that is both beautiful and horrifying. As reviewer David Edelstein stated, this is a story that plays to the teen girl fantasy of being both beautifully fashionable and proving that you have depth of character, but the script is above the typical tweenie entry. The drama is not overstated with shouting matches. It keeps everyone else the same respect of character that it affords Miranda. A fight between Andy and her boyfriend is simply her coming in late and apologizing to him as he skulks off to bed. It's often pointed in moments where you feel trouble has started, but it just hasn't come to bear yet.
This isn't a story about the real fashion world. As interviews with former Vogue employees reiterate. Miranda is an amalgam of several real-life characters, and publishers don't go to their offices in green eye shadow and in head-to-toe Gucci or Prada. This is a hyper-realized New York, much like the NYC from Frankel's experience on "Sex in the City". In the brilliant sequence where we follow Andy's walk to work and her outfits change as people and cabs pass between her and the camera, it would not be a surprise to see Carrie Bradshaw breaking up with someone after a luckless one-night-stand. This just makes it a Hollywood experience and puts everything into high relief to emphasize the bad boss experience we've all had.
Ultimately, this is about careers and how far people are willing to go in order to make them work. Try not to get caught up in what it might imply about women's fashion; this could easily be on a double bill with "Wall Street". (Although, "Prada" doesn't have the same weight as Stone's film. This is a comedy, after all.) Not since Dante Hicks's long day at The Quick Stop has anyone had such an entertainingly torturous work experience. I'm just relieved I wasn't the one tripping over myself to find the unpublished manuscript for "Harry Potter 7".
8 out of 10