Streep delivers everything in a cool, restrained, almost dulcet voice, and she can destroy someone with either a fierce glare or, better yet, a dismissive, sleepy-lidded look to remind the recipient they're not even worth the energy of a fierce glare. In a word, Streep is awesome. In fact, you almost end up rooting for Miranda over the entitled, whiny Andy (which is not a slam against the charming Hathaway but more of a problem with the way her character is written).
The funny thing is, when a movie like this is so urgently, fashionably modern, it inevitably feels dated after the end credits have started rolling. With 1988's Working Girl, people looked back ten years later and made fun of the skyscraper hair and football player should pads. Yet now, people are already criticizing Prada's decadent, almost 80s-esque fashions ten minutes after watching it. Are the clothes unrealistic? Yes. The costume designer, after all, is Patricia Field, who also created over-the-top ensembles for Sex and the City. Slate's Amanda Fortini explains it very well:
The problem is, subdued, well-edited clothing doesn't play well onscreen. The camera cannot sufficiently capture a sumptuous texture or a nuanced cut. The bright colors and conspicuous logos Field uses serve as visual shorthand for the glamour of a fashion editor's life. To differentiate her characters from regular women dressed up for work, Field had to make their ensembles over-the-top.So get over it, you fashion snobs.
Actually, even though I referred to the movie as "fluffy," it does have some interesting points about working in your twenties (doesn't everyone worry that their boss will be a Miranda Priestly?), sacrifices, accountability, priorities (if you're personal life is shit, that means you're probably doing well at your job; if you have no personal life, prepare to be promoted) and gender politics. In fact, Prada seems to be the movie everyone is talking about.
There's not a lot of movies that I want to see a second time so soon after the first, but this might be one of them. Actually, I don't want to see the whole movie. I want someone to re-edit the film with only the scenes that Streep is in. Okay, any scene with her or Stanley Tucci as her snappy, witty sidekick. I would definitely watch that 45-minute "best of" compilation over and over, flipping through an Armani Exchange catalogue in one hand, taking notes with the other.
Article comments
1 - Jim Gleeson
The thing about fashion, and being a guy who is not (I hate this term) a metrosexual, I am not into fashion is that you rarely actually see what is on the runway actually worn by people in reality. So my opinion is that it is an accurate look at the high fashion industry which only a few people actually wear and of course those of us less savvy are likely to see it as untrue because of what we see walking around everyday.
The only place in the world you see fashions like the kind they depict is in the fashion world of whixh, once again, I am not a part of. That being said, it is still a good movie.
2 - Don Baiocchi
I am not part of the fashion world, either, but from what I've read the clothes in the movie are not, in fact, realistic. Patricia Field, the costume designer for the movie, even admitted as much. They're fun, glamorous and over the top. There's no way someone like Andy would be able to afford all those high-end outfits and in real life lowly assistants are not allowed to raid their magazine's stashes of clothes.
But it did work for the movie, which is fun and over the top in general.
3 - Buzz Miller
It is a rare day when I walk out of a movie theater really angry. But it happened today. Why? Because I just saw Devil Wears Prada. Did I know the movie would be about a boss from hell? You bet! I just didn’t know how nasty and unappreciative this boss would be. Expectations were not met because they were ridiculously impossible! And we don’t just feel sympathy for the naïve newcomer who has an insane amount of loyalty to her uncaring and undeserving boss. We also feel for everyone else working for the company. Hey! You get crapped on and guess what you do " you crap on everyone you work with.
Unfortunately, Devil Wears Prada is not just another boss from hell movie. It highlights the values of the fashion industry " values which are incredibly superficial and damaging. If you are a woman and you happen to be lucky enough to wear a size 6 dress, you simply aren’t lucky enough. If you aren’t size 4 or below, you are fat and need to lose weight. Come on people! Damn!
Yes, I am angry. I am angry with myself for seeing this piece of trash movie. I just couldn’t overcome my curiosity regarding how Meryl Streep " one of my all time favorite actresses " would play the role. I am happy to report she did a splendid job.
4 - Don Baiocchi
Buzz, I'm intrigued by your response. I agree that Andy's "achievement" to slim down to a size 4 was a ridiculous message no matter how satirical the context is (it wasn't played for laughs anyway).
But when Miranda admits that she wanted to hire the "smart, fat girl," you're laughing at her for being so isolated and snotty, not at Andy. There's a huge difference.
I know you knew what the film was about, but what exactly were you expecting? Most comedy is based on exaggeration, so obviously Miranda Priestly had to be a very heightened version of the "boss from hell" to merit having an entire movie revolve around her. Were her requests ridiculous? Of course they were! Was it meant to be a realistic, documentary-style depiction of interning at a fashion mag ? Not so much. And while I did feel sympathy for everyone working for her, they weren't exactly there with guns to their heads. They chose to work there.
And while the film laughs AT the fashion industry, Miranda's monologue explaining her influential decisions had me appreciating their work on a whole new level. Sure, it might not change the world (and how many jobs change the world, anyway?), but it influences a large part of it, without most people even realizing it.
Not a great film, but a fun one.
5 - Rodney Welch
I think you can take Andi's job two ways. One thing I really loved about the movie is that it was a movie about working, which is something I always like seeing: how people work, what a job involves, the highs, the lows -- these are all very interesting to me, eventhough we are talking about a highly dramatized sort of workplace.
But where Andi's job was super-impossible, I found myself kind of envying her in a small way. The fact that she got the job at all meant that she was good, for one thing, and her job certainly wasn't boring; it involved meeting these huge responsibilities that meant either lasting another day or losing everything. It was the almost like the fashion world version of "Survivor" or "The Apprentice," and I always found myself a little thrilled when she succeeded. The story got very involving in that way.
I agree with Don about Miranda's sense of isolation; you're talking about a world where Kate Moss is considered the norm and anorexia is simply an occupational hazard. But, as Don also notes, Miranda knows who she is and what her world is about, or thinks she does, and it gives her a unique vantage point, all of which comes through in that speech, where she uses the example of Andi's cerulean sweater to deliver a lesson on how high fashion trends filter down to people (like Andi) who think they're above it all.
6 - Kiersten
does anyone know the first song that was played in the movie. Very first seen?
7 - emily
"suddenly i see" by KT Tunstall is the first song in the Devil wears Prada movie.
8 - Steve
Right, emily, from her 2006 debut album "Eye To The Telescope".
9 - JM
i like this movie
10 - cosmicgrrl
i was very disappointed in this film in that the book was so much better. the storyline was a watered down excuse to parade around in couture. the casting was not at all right and the dynamics between the central character and her boyfriend, her best friend, emily and that between miranda and her husband was completely lost in this adaptation. i can't believe the auhor went ahead with this screenplay version of her book.