Meryl Streep All the Way

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2006)

While Ann Hathaway's "junior assistant hoping for a career in journalism" may have been the lead character in the novel and be regarded by some as the lead character in the movie, the plain fact is that this movie belongs entirely to Meryl Streep as the most self-centered, bitchiest boss in the entire world of fashion magazine-dom. Streep dominates every scene she appears in and the lead actress becomes her foil. The audience awaits the next whim that will drive her assistants to desperation, to invention, to achievement -- all rewarded with not even a snarling thank you. Although it's said to be no secret that "The Devil..." is said to be a young author's revengeful portrait of an actual bitch-on-wheels, Streep's character is like a creature out of a horror movie, Boris Karloff in drag, and it is a masterful performance. Ann Hathaway is charming and the first assistant, later demoted as Ann's character rises in the world, is nicely limned as is Stanley Tucci's, Streep's -- what shall we call him, managing-editor-on-a-leash -- but they are each 60 watt bulbs in the presence of a pulsing 10,000 watt search light. Streep deserves something for this role -- perhaps a flogging on a Paris runway? But she is a marvel of the dragon lady incarnate.