The Devil Wears Prada: Movie & DVD Review (2006)

(Originally published 2006)

Long before "The Devil Wears Prada" pitched its fork in bookstores, audiences knew the deal--high fashion is hardcore. It's ruthless, it's cold, it's obtainable by only a few. Can't cut the couture? Then cut your Simplicity pattern elsewhere, cookie. This closed club of anorexic insiders, after all, haven't gathered to make a movie called "The Devil Wears Member's Mark."

From David Frankel, "The Devil Wears Prada" is based on Lauren Weisberger’s tougher, meaner best-selling novel.

Since the world of high fashion is always prime for sending up, that's what occurs here, though not at savagely as fans of the book might expect. The difference between this PG-13-rated movie and the R-rated book is that the movie wants to humanize the industry in ways that Weisberger never intended. It's a film at odds with itself, at once condemning the allure of haute couture while also being seduced by it.

So, mirroring the fashion world, it’s a hive of complications and contradictions.

It's also perfectly enjoyable, even if it does sell out its more diabolical scenes in an effort to appeal to the broadest possible audience.

Adapted by Aline Brosh McKenna, the film's chief departure from the book is that it makes Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly, the impeccably stylish, vicious editor of "Runway" magazine (think Anna Wintour of "Vogue"), slightly less of a terror.

Streep is on a quiet tear here, leveling her prey with hooded eyes and dismissive gestures that are so studied and cold, she becomes more menacing and believable than the monster portrayed in the book. It's a memorable performance, one that feels lived in and enjoyed. In a matter of weeks, this quintessential actress and comedian has come from Garrison Keillor's "Prairie" to the runways of Gay Paree without a hitch. Watching the transformation of someone in such complete control of her craft is a thrill.

In the movie, Miranda's prey is Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), a frumpy girl with baggy clothes who has just graduated from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism with big dreams of becoming a writer.

Andy is bright, but she's a naïf. When she turns up at "Runway" for a job as one of Miranda's assistants, she has no clue who Miranda is or the power she wields, no knowledge of the magazine she hopes to represent, and no idea about the history of fashion and its importance, which isn't nearly as slight as she believes. All she sees is opportunity. As she's told by friends, if she can make it through just one year with Miranda Priestley, she will be able to command any magazine job that she wants.

What ensues, of course, is Andy's transformation from duck to swan. It isn't just Miranda's disapproval that shapes her rather extreme makeover, but also the sneering disregard of Miranda's scary first assistant, Emily (Emily Blunt), and the helpful assistance of Miranda's art director, Nigel (Stanley Tucci), who knows his way, shall we say, around a Jimmy Choo. With all of this building to a predictable personal crisis for Andy--can she look this great and be this much of a suck-up without becoming a devil herself?--the movie leans hard on the excellence of its cast to make it the satisfying, glossy film that it is.

Grade: B+