The Devil Wears Prada

Entertaining. Meryl Streep is great as Miranda Priestley, the feared editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine. We've all seen this type of boss portrayed in movies and on TV, everyone scurrying to meet impossible demands, but this one does it without the screaming temper tantrums. In fact, her voice stays low and reasonable-sounding throughout, and it's fun.

Anne Hathaway, as the new number two assistant to Miranda, Andrea somebody, sometimes looks great and sometimes looks like a Disney Princess (maybe Snow White), which doesn't mean she looks bad, necessarily, just a little like a cartoon. You know, skin like snow, eyes like coal, lips like blood, or whatever it is. And I was sometimes confused about who (old boyfriend or new famous writer boyfriend?) or what (stay in fashion job and dress amazingly or return to old dream of writing for The New Yorker?) I was supposed to be rooting for. I don't know if this was a weakness of the movie or a strength--maybe it's good not to show choices as Good or Bad, since they often aren't Good or Bad. I suspect that it was actually a weakness, though, perhaps caused by too little time given to Andrea's old friends, boyfriend, ambitions. Or maybe they were given enough time, but they just seemed boring compared to the cut-throat world of fashion where size 6 is the new 14.

Some secondary characters were very good: Miranda's number one assistant, a bratty English girl who reluctantly helps Andrea along, and Miranda's right-hand man who is kind to Andrea but doesn't pander to her whininess.

Also, I liked the music a lot.

Comments

  1. I'd like to see this one. Look like good clean entertainment. But your comment about the secondary characters reminded me of this other movie I saw where the secondary character MADE the movie. Did you see "Failure to Launch" with Matthew whatever (the thinks-he's-so-sexy but eats like a horse guy) and Sarah Jessica Parker. That movie was hilarious when it came to all the side characters. The main character were okay. Not my favorite actors so they sort of bugged me. They kept eating and smacking their lips... it was gross. But the witchy roommate who was obsessed with getting rid of the annoying bird, and the other guys...they made the movie funny. Even Cathy Bates and that sports caster turned actor guy were funny....

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  2. Sory for all the typoes on my last coment. I acsidentaly submited befor proof reeding.

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  3. Thanks for the typos. They're great. Yeah, I guess this was fairly clean, though there's some background stuff that makes it not completely innocent. It's all commonplace on TV, though, and in fact, it's probably cleaner than TV. Yes, I saw Failure to Launch and liked it for the same reasons. I also do not like Matthew McConaughey, but I liked the movie because of the secondary characters. They were actually even better than the ones in The Devil Wears Prada. I'd like the read the book someday (The Devil Wears Prada, that is). The author worked for the well-known (though not to me) editor of Vogue magazine, so supposedly it's not exactly fictional. Sounds like fun. Another interesting, entertaining and appalling read is The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, also supposedly fictional but by two former nannies.

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  4. Former nannies who tell their stories in this book, I meant to say. I am really tired.

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