The Devil Wears Prada
Screenplay written by: Aline Brosh McKenna based on the novel by
Lauren Weisberger.
Actors: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci,
Adrian Grenier.
Directed by: David Frankel
Rated: PG-13
The Devil Wears Prada
Screenplay written by: Aline Brosh McKenna based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger.
Actors: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Adrian Grenier.
Directed by: David Frankel
Rated: PG-13
Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway), whose friends call her Andy, is a young graduate of Northwestern University who, while willing to take a transitional job in New York City while waiting for a career opportunity as a serious journalist, applies for, and lands, the job as the second assistant to famous fashion magazine maven, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the editor-in-chief of “Runway.” Miranda’s Priestly’s first assistant (Emily Blunt) is an over-worked and dedicated young Brit named Emily who can not comprehend how anyone could not know who Miranda Priestly is or be unimpressed by the honor of assisting “the” Miranda Priestly at the most influential fashion magazine on the planet.
Andy is thought to be a little high-minded and a bit ambivalent about the importance of style in the context of world events. Miranda Priestly coolly launches into a diatribe about the earth-shattering impact that her decisions have on the fashion industry annually, how it translates to billions of dollars, and how those decisions even relate specifically to cable knit on Andy’s back. Continually called by a wrong name and humiliated by Miranda’s disgust with her ineptitude while expecting her to tend to everything mundane and critical, Andy’s pride motivates her to persevere despite jeopardizing her relationship with her boyfriend, Nate (Adrian Grenier).
He Said:
As a man, I sort of dreaded seeing a story that centered on the fashion industry to about the same degree as I would imagine Kathy would dread it if she had to watch one that focused on the deliberate design and materials chosen for various types of motorcycles. However, the first scenes piqued my interest as I watched beautiful waifs dawn flimsy garb and float down a runway.
It all had only a basic initial appeal until I began to sense that I was also getting a rare, though fictional, look behind the catwalks of high fashion when I remembered that the author of the novel the movie was based on actually worked for the infamous editor of Vogue magazine. That point of interest, along with Meryl Streep’s indelibly great interpretation of a cool, power-hungry, self-absorbed, and abusive boss like no woman I have seen in cinema, kept my interest all through “The Devil Wears Prada.”
It was entertaining and I’d suggest you see it if only to watch some good performances.
On the R&R Scale (1-10):
8 for script: Sharp and crisp dialogue.
7 for direction: Interesting camera angles that brought out everyone’s character well.
8 for acting: Streep, 9, Hathaway and Tucci 8, Granier, and Blunt 7.
7 for plot: Predictable Cinderella mistreatment and conversion with a loftier long term agenda.
7 for entertainment Value
7.4 overall
She Said:
It wasn’t really a comedy, but had elements of it. It wasn’t a true drama but had elements of that also. However, it was Lauren Weisberger’s “fictional” and sometimes-humorous exaggeration of so many real life variations on the boss-as-tyrant scenario – all fabulously Streep dominated. Streep’s interpretation of Miranda Priestly as a woman who could quietly cast a lethal blow with one look, voice inflection, or by a deliberately well-crafted verbal barb was masterful. Stanley Tucci and the very British Emily Blunt were perfect counterbalances in character and plot to Miranda’s acidic power plays and Andy’s naïvely striving efforts to meet or exceed her master’s every demand. Since, being her boss’ “whipping girl” was necessarily followed by internal conflicts of personal integrity from the beginning, that may have grown thin if those were the only counterpoints stretching the length of film without inserting Blunt and Tucci’s entertaining interaction. “The Devil Wears Prada” was crisply entertaining and fun.
On the R&R Scale (1-10)
7 for script: Adapted story to screen well,
7 for direction: Captured the essence of the fashion world.
8 for acting: Streep 9 and in a league of her own, complimented well by others, 7.
7 for plot: What will you sacrifice for what everyone else thinks you should want?.
7 for entertainment Value (Deliciously fun to watch.
7.2 overall
