The Devil Wears Prada

Film #612

THE PLOT

A smart but sensible new graduate lands a job as an assistant to Miranda Priestly, the demanding editor-in-chief of a high fashion magazine.

THE REVIEW

Prior to watching The Devil Wears Prada, one of the only things I knew about was Meryl Streep’s infamous monologue about a cerulean sweater which someone from a college class did a kinetic typography project on. That and, when writing my review for Ocean’s 8 a few days ago, Anna Wintour’s name popped up because she organizes the Met Gala every year (which is the focal point of the heist), and Wintour is the inspiration for Streep’s Miranda Priestly character.

Passage of a time was one of my only issues with The Devil Wears Prada. Not in a pacing-sense that the film dragged on, but that it was hard to grasp how long Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathway) was invested in her job as Mrs. Priestly’s (erm, Miranda’s) assistant. As she slowly morphs from the innocent non-fashion-focused recent college graduate into a full Runway employee wearing all the latest designers, montage after montage shows Sachs in outfit after outfit, fetching coffee after coffee, running endlessly around New York City to try and please Miranda. Andrea’s goal is to stick with the job for a year, and by the end I felt as if it she had more than succeeded. But alas, we find out she was only there for about six months. It’s not a major issue, but it does affect one’s understanding of the scenes they see.

The obvious draw of the film is the acting. Not just Meryl Streep who was nominated for a then-current Oscar record 14th nomination (she has since be nominated seven more times for a total of 21 Oscar nods) for Best Actress, but the rest of the cast as well. Emily Blunt was called out by a lot of critics for her role as Emily Charlton, but my personal call out would be for longtime personal favorite Stanley Tucci who plays Nigel Kipling, a mentor and guide of sorts of Andrea. The Devil Wears Prada also hits many of the general feel-good romantic-comedy tropes, despite not being particularly romance-focused (the guys all play super minor supporting roles, except for Tucci) and not entirely feel-good (Andrea’s job is pretty miserable for the most part). Nonetheless, it’s a film you can just turn on, forget about, and enjoy until the credits roll. For those of you recently having seen Ocean’s 8, be sure to give this, not-really-at-all-related-film a watch.

THE RATING

4 out of 5