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This clever, funny big-screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's best-seller takes some of the snarky bite out of the chick lit book, but smoothes out the characters' boxy edges to make a more satisfying movie. There's no doubt
The Devil Wears Prada belongs to Meryl Streep, who turns in an Oscar®-worthy (seriously!) strut as the monster editor-in-chief of
Runway, an elite fashion magazine full of size-0, impossibly well-dressed plebes. This makes new second-assistant Andrea (Anne Hathaway), who's smart but an unacceptable size 6, stick out like a sore thumb. Streep has a ball sending her new slave on any whimsical errand, whether it's finding the seventh (unpublished) Harry Potter book or knowing what type she means when she wants "skirts." Though Andrea thumbs her nose at the shallow world of fashion (she's only doing the job to open doors to a position at
The New Yorker someday), she finds herself dually disgusted yet seduced by the perks of the fast life. The film sends a basic message: Make work your priority, and you'll be rich and powerful... and lonely. Any other actress would have turned Miranda into a scenery-chewing Cruella, but Streep's underplayed, brilliant comic timing make her a fascinating, unapologetic character. Adding frills to the movie's fun are Stanley Tucci as Streep's second-in-command, Emily Blunt (
My Summer of Love) as the overworked first assistant, Simon Baker as a sexy writer, and breathtaking couture designs any reader of
Vogue would salivate over.
-- Ellen A. Kim
On the DVD
It becomes apparent on the DVD's bonus features that
The Devil Wears Prada's production was more than a little similar to the shoots for TV's
Sex and the City. For one, there's director David Frankel, who in one featurette reveals he learned the importance of getting plenty of footwear shots from his stint on the HBO comedy. Then there's costume designer Patricia Fields (also from
SATC) who provides the most valuable contribution to the DVD's commentary track (by telling you who designed everyone's outfit in any given scene) and is the subject of her own featurette. The many deleted scenes are worth a watch, particularly one in which Miranda actually thanks Andy for saving her from a publicly humiliating moment (which was likely cut because it made Miranda too soft). A gag reel contains many high-heeled spills by Hathaway, and numerous experimental takes by Streep and Tucci, who each turn out to have ad-libbed the best lines in the movie. Also entertaining: man-on-the-street stories about true-life bosses from hell. "Gird your loins," indeed.
--Ellen A. Kim
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