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The Devil Wears Prada
Movie Stats & Links |
Starring: |
Anne Hathaway,
Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt |
MPAA Rated: |
PG-13 |
Released By: |
20th Century Fox |
Web Site: |
.devilwearspradamovie.com |
Kiddie Movie: |
Younger girls,
okay. Younger boys, only if they've hit puberty. |
Date Movie: |
It's a dudette
flick, with some things dudes might like. |
Gratuitous Sex: |
Anne Hathaway in a
nice bra and models in skimpy outfits. |
Gratuitous
Violence: |
Nah. |
Action: |
Nah. |
Laughs: |
Quite a few
chuckles. |
Memorable
Scene: |
Miranda's diatribe
to Andy about the trickle down of high fashion and how it
ends up being the color of Andy's boring sweater. |
Memorable
Quote: |
Miranda's
constantly dismissive "That's all." |
Directed By: |
David Frankel |
Produced By: |
Wendy Finerman |
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The Devil Wears Prada
A Movie Review |
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I really liked "The Devil Wears Prada." There, I said it.
It’s out of the way. I’m a guy and I really liked "The Devil
Wears Prada." But before I get to my reasons why, let me
give you a quick rundown of the movie…
Anne Hathaway is Andrea, a.k.a. Andy. She’s fresh out of
college and living in sin with her boyfriend, Nate (Adrian
Grenier), in New York City. Andy wants to be a writer, but
in the meantime she just needs a job and finds herself in an
interview at Runway, a super-de-duper fashion magazine with
Miranda Frost (Meryl Streep) at the helm. From the get-go we
instantly find that Miranda is a tyrant of a boss, yet
everyone still wants to work for her because working, and
doing a decent job for Runway, and more important, a decent
job for Miranda, can lead to more advancement opportunities
than might be humanly possible. Miranda sees something in
Andy that Andy doesn’t even realize she has, and suddenly
Andy finds herself as the Second Assistant to one of the
most important women in fashion. And Andy has a lot to
learn, and in about an hour of a movie, she learns it all.
At first Andy is content with her, at least in the
fashion world, bland clothing, but she quickly learns the
importance of fashion, in even her bland life. Andy
also learns that some people honestly think they should be
able to be flown out of Florida when a hurricane is bearing
down on the area, and it will be your fault because you
couldn’t find a pilot with a plane willing to fly in deadly
weather. And Andy’s lessons continue to come, like looking
good on the outside can help you look good on the inside,
especially when your bra is a little more naughty looking.
Andy keeps learning things, eventually finding out she has
become more similar to Miranda than she ever wanted to be.
Life’s lessons are learned for Andy, she realizes the woman
she wants to be, and Miranda, in the end, seems proud of
Andy, even though Miranda seems to know that she is the
bitch she will always be.
There is so much in this movie that I don’t want to give
away, but as a dude, seeing what portrays itself as a
dudette-flick, I have to give some things away, so let me
get down to reasons why I really liked "The Devil Wears
Prada." Movie story aside, performances aside, this movie is
about fashion, and the dudettes in this movie, from Andrea
to Miranda, are smoking hot, especially in their fashion
ways. Fine, Miranda is an older dudette, but she looks fine,
and me being me, Andrea was still my type when she was
dressing in lowly fashions, even more my type in high
fashion, and all of the other dudettes were hot because they
always dressed their part. Then there was the story. Andrea
is looking for a job as a journalist – that is what she has
always done, but the important thing to her is that she has
always done her job well. At Runway she’s not a journalist,
but the "pride in her job" thing hits her square in the head
in one scene, and she realizes she needs to become immersed
in the job to do it well because she knows she can, and she
does. But Andrea, at first, doesn’t realize the sacrifices
she is making in her personal life, and by the end of the
movie, she loves the world she is in, but doesn’t love the
world she has to be in to be there. Wow, that’s sort of
deep. The other side of this coin is Miranda. As a boss she
is a terror, but if you can adapt, you live with it because
she is at the top of the ladder, and if you want to get
there, she is one of them to learn from, at least in the
business she is in. But in the end, hot dudettes and the
story aside, this movie was about performances, and for me
it was perfectly cast, and I will keep it to the main three
folks, Miranda, Andy, and Nigel, mostly because otherwise
this review will go on way too long.
Starting with Nigel, played by Stanley Tucci, he if sort
of the comic element in the movie, but really he deals with
Miranda because he knows how to, does a fantastic job at his
job, and sees that his platform to independence will come by
his working at Runway. But he has a soft spot for Andy and
explains to her the inner workings of life at a fashion
magazine, and Andy lets him help her to learn the ins and
outs. In a sort of touching scene, you can see how proud
Nigel is of his student when she has lost some weight and
learned how to dress herself in the world she has found
herself in. Next up is Anne Hathaway as Andrea/Andy. She
comes into the world kind of homely, realizes what she needs
to do in order to do her job well, and learns that she has
two paths left in her world at one time: Become the next
Miranda, or go back to being a journalist. Whatever path she
chooses, she sure looked fantastic in the high-fashion
clothes.
But the reason to see "The Devil Wears Prada," and
nothing against everyone else in the film, comes down to
Meryl Streep as Miranda. Miranda is a bitch, and you get the
sense that she really knows she is, yet she doesn’t care because in
the world she is in, she can’t afford not to be, and Meryl
Streep plays this to the top of the bitch level. She hires
Andy yet cuts her down at any moment she can, she has her
staff, yet cuts them down at any moment she can, and even
when the movie gets her to a point where you think Miranda
might have human emotions, she quickly gets rid of them and
gets right back to business. This is what she does, and she
knows it. But there were two scenes that typified Miranda’s
character. The first is a fantastic explanation to Andy
about the color of Andy’s sort of plain-jane sweater after
Andy can’t tell the difference between two high-fashion
belts, and the other scene is when Miranda reveals to Andy
that as disgusted as Andy was with an action of Miranda’s,
that Andy, in fact, had done the same thing. Meryl Streep
accomplished these points with utter perfection, and I can’t
see many other slightly older actresses being able to pull
it off. I have a new-found appreciation for the actress that
is Meryl Streep, especially between this movie and the
recent "A Prairie Home Companion."
I can’t give you a hint if you will like "The Devil Wears
Prada" for this review because there are way too many
elements that might like lead you to liking this movie. If
you like a hard-ass boss, Meryl Streep is the hardest-ass
I’ve seen in a while as Miranda. If you like a movie about finding what
is important in your life, Anne Hathaway does a great job at
the dudette who finds out she is changing into someone she
doesn’t really want to be. If you like a movie with hot
dudettes, and just want to stare for most of the movie, this
one’s not bad either.
Look, this movie review has gotten way too long already,
so I’m just going to say again that I really liked "The
Devil Wears Prada." With that, it’s 4 stars out of 5.
Whether it is an inspirational story, a story about a pain
in the ass boss, or a movie with hot dudettes, see it for
what it’s worth and enjoy it.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!! |