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Los_Angeles_Drew 80M
1013 posts
6/23/2006 10:50 pm

Last Read:
7/14/2006 11:06 pm

Meryl Streep Deliciously Evil in "Devil Wears Prada"..

Meryl Streep deliciously evil in "Devil Wears Prada"
By Kirk Honeycutt

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (Hollywood Reporter) - "The Devil Wears Prada," as that spot-on title would indicate, takes place in the world of haute couture. And that pretty much sums up the movie. Otherwise, it would be just another Queen of Mean, boss from hell movie.

But, oh, what delicious fun Meryl Streep and her conspirators -- co-star Anne Hathaway, director David Frankel and writer Aline Brosh McKenna.

This comic chick flick should enjoy box office success with female audiences in urban markets in North America and Europe.

The film is based on the best-seller by Lauren Weisberger, who did a stint as an assistant to Anna Wintour, the all-powerful editor of Vogue.

That novel and now this movie are her revenge: Here is an insider's view of the insane, pressure-cooker atmosphere an outrageously demanding boss can establish in her architecturally pristine executive suite.

Hathaway plays Andi Sachs, a fashion-challenged Northwestern graduate who takes a job as an assistant to Miranda, editor of Runway magazine.

Her idea is that a year at Runway on her resume, will help her achieve her goal of working at the New Yorker. But Andi so doesn't fit the mode.

Nigel (Stanley Tucci in perfect casting), Miranda's fey but tough right-hand man, takes one look at Andi and wonders, in one of the movie's better lines, if there is "a before-and-after piece I don't know about?"

Yet it is this awkward fashion sense and naivete that actually land Andi the job. All of Miranda's previous assistants, fashion horses in clacking stilettos, have disappointed her. So why not try the NERD?

Installed as Assistant No. 2 under Assistant No. 1, Andi is swiftly cut down to size by Miranda. That would be a size 6, which causes one Clacker to call Andi "fat." (The problem with this line, which is funny, is that Hathaway is the thinnest person onscreen -- a size 4 at worst. Then again, maybe that's why it is funny.)

Frankel and McKenna do a smart thing in not completely demonizing Miranda. Fashion is a serious business in America, and Runway means to remain the bible of that industry. Only a killer editor who takes no prisoners can maintain those standards.

So Miranda, and for a while Andi, put their jobs first. Everything else -- husbands, twins and any social life outside of fashion for Miranda, and a boyfriend (Adrian Grenier), coterie of friends (Tracie Thoms, Rich Sommer) and a dreamy novelist (Simon Baker) with romantic ideas for Andi -- come a distant, distant second.

It eventually becomes clear that there is method to Miranda's madness: Her incessant demands are tests to purge staff members who are not up to her own ruthless quest for perfection.

Indeed the virtuous moral at the movie's end -- that this is no way to live a good life -- feels hallow because the film displays an unmistakable ambivalence toward Runway.

Streep makes Miranda a bit sad and lonely without allowing for even an ounce of sympathy for her character: She has made her choice in life and clearly loves it.

Hathaway's Andi has gotten momentarily swept up in the excitement of anticipating and exceeding her boss' demands, but realizes she has lost her career focus.

Designer Jeff Gonchor, costumer Patricia Field and cinematographer Florian Ballhaus, outdo themselves in realizing a rarefied world not unlike the one which Cole Porter once satirized in song as "Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor."



Abelle2 83F
31259 posts
6/24/2006 7:46 am

I saw a size 6 one time!! haha I probably thought...do people come this little? This sounds like a good movie and I will keep my eye out for it. Ann