The Devil Wears Prada Review
by news.west.earthlink.net (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)June 27th, 2006
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight," Emily (Emily Blunt) tells Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), who is a dreaded "6," as in size 6. Emily is one of the many "clackers" in the office of Runway magazine, headed up by dragon lady Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). The name clackers comes from the sound the women make while running around furiously in their stiletto heels on the firm's marble floor. And run they do or the soft spoken Miranda, acting like the Queen of Hearts, will have them banished and probably beheaded as well. When Miranda is about to arrive in the office, Nigel (Stanley Tucci) screams out to the worker bees, "Alright everyone, gird your loins!"
Set in the rarified world of haute couture, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA is a lightweight but likable comedy. Sure, it has some messages for you about friends being more important than jobs and about following your career dreams being more important than fame and possible fortune, but all it really wants to do is entertain you and make you laugh. And laugh you will, as Streep and Hathaway are at the top of their form.
When we meet Andy, she is a dorky woman who is applying to be the second assistant to the devil herself, Miranda, the editor and head of Runway magazine, the top publication of the fashion world. Most women who apply at Runway would kill to work there, as Emily tells Andy. Emily has been moved up to the esteemed position of being Miranda's first assistant after the last first one was fired. The demanding Miranda eats assistants for breakfast, and she barks out orders with a drill sergeant's rapidity. Never raising her voice, she demands the almost impossible on an hourly basis, and, when it comes time to banish someone, she resorts to insisting on the absolutely impossible.
Andy is a dorky woman who turned down Harvard law for a journalism career that still hasn't gotten underway, so she is the least likely person to be applying to work at Runway. Of course, there will be a dramatic turn in the story when Andy does the inevitable and discovers how to dress like a princess -- sorry, that was another Hathaway film -- I mean dress like a fashion model. She begins to relish the treadmill of her work at Runway. When Miranda is stranded by a hurricane in a faraway city, Andy cajoles everyone possible to get their private jet and pilot to take off and bring her boss back.
Will the heartless Miranda develop some empathy for those who toil tirelessly for her? And will Andy realize that her handsome hunk of a boyfriend (Adrian Grenier) is more important than working day and night for her endlessly needy manager? The answers may appear obvious, but they are unimportant. You'll leave thoroughly entertained, and that is all the movie really cares about.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA runs a breezy 1:35. It is rated PG-13 for "some sensuality" and would be acceptable for kids around 7 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, June 30, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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