The Devil Wears Prada
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ANNE HATHAWAY
MERYL STREEP
STANLEY TUCCI
By all means move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me.
~ Miranda Priestly
Quick Fox: C-
The Devil Wears Prada is a pleasant comedy that has an embarrassment of acting talent, but fails to incorporate its star-power into a story with much substance.
winding dragon
Based on Lauren Weisberger’s novel of the same name, 20th Century Fox and director David Frankel deliver a fashion-trending romantic comedy, following Northwestern graduate Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) as she blossoms into the kind of high-fashion snob she once ridiculed. Desperate for work, the struggling journalist takes on an assistant role with Runway magazine, completely oblivious that “one-million people would kill for her job” and it means having a front-row seat to the terror of the dubbed “Dragon Lady” Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), editor-in-chief for an industry that mines diamonds out of lumpy, cerulean-sweater wearing assistants. According to Andy’s new co-worker Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), Miranda once fired someone for having the gall to leave her desk after cutting her hand with a letter opener. In other words, Runway sounds like a perfectly healthy working environment.
Much to everyone’s surprise, Andy not merely survives Miranda’s frightening tactics…she thrives. With plenty of patience and guidance from Miranda’s primary artistic director Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci), Andy learns how to stand toe-to-toe with her mentor and soon embraces an extravagant lifestyle of couture and workplace humiliation. But as her career soars and she develops a sense of loyalty for new boss, her personal life and moral integrity take a nosedive, jeopardizing her romantic relationship with Nate Cooper (Adrian Grenier). Further complicating matters is that she catches the interest of a charming, somewhat stalkey journalist named Christian Thompson (Simon Baker). The Devil doesn’t bother with disguises in this romantic comedy...she announces herself in Prada.
I don’t know if I was the target audience for The Devil Wears Prada. I mean, on Andy’s first day on the job, she asks a client on the phone how to spell “Gabbana.” My simpleton mind chuckled as the caller hung up, but in a flash of horror, I realized I also had no idea how to spell “Gabbana.” Two B’s? (Or not two B’s?) Two N’s? Banana but with a G in front of it? And what is exactly is a “Gabbana?” Is it someone’s name? A location? A style? All of these questions have since been magically answered thanks to the power of Google. Fortunately for me, it soon became clear that an intricate knowledge of the fashion industry would not be necessary. As Andy slowly gains the approval of Runaway’s editor-in-chief, the story shifts into an exploration of power — specifically, what kind of person it takes to be the commander of a corporate superpower.
Unfortunately for The Devil Wears Prada, that’s actually the film’s greatest weakness, as the story suffers from inexperienced directing and an underdeveloped story. At the time 20th Century Fox handed the reigns over to David Frankel, he had only one theatrical film under his belt and was working with a less than ideal budget. (Fun Fact: Meryl Streep didn’t go to France to shoot the grand finale because it was “too expensive” to hire her to work there for six weeks.) The screenplay itself was developed before Weisberger’s novel was even completed — Fox bought the rights without seeing the published manuscript, they were that enamored with the premise. And like any self-respecting anime fan already knows, producing something before the author has completed their work leads to incredibly divisive plot lines.
Weisberger’s novel is a caricature of Miranda Priestly as a modern-day Cruella de Vil; the film explores what makes Miranda human, depicting her as a ruthless, zealous director with rare glimpses of vulnerability. And I appreciate that idea. Andy delivers a line that pretty much sums up why Meryl Streep wanted to take on this role in the first place, “Okay, so she’s tough, but if Miranda were a man, no one would notice anything but how great she is at her job.” I have no argument against that; it’s awesome that The Devil Wears Prada depicts a woman in a corporate leadership position and fights against a sexist stereotype that says women in these roles need to have a domineering, hyper-masculine demeanor to fit in. Meryl Streep is brilliant as Miranda Priestly. She rules the office with snarky comments, a soft-spoken voice over intense volume, and withering expressions. She has a monologue about cerulean sweaters that is a highlight of Streep’s acting career, where she rebukes Andy for her ignorance by launching into a mild but impassioned speech about how the business decisions Miranda makes affects the general public in ways we will never recognize. From a dramatic perspective, I think the movie took the right direction in focusing on Miranda and Andy’s relationship as the central conflict, because it allows the audience to feel the peaks and valleys of Andy’s admiration for this woman in power.
Unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. (Sorry, that pun was too good to go unwritten.) While the plot line of Andy becoming Miranda’s prized pupil has its moments, it is sorely underdeveloped. On a humor level, the film usually hits where it needs to. Emily Blunt is fun as an uptight, overworked assistant, and I have never not been entertained by Stanley Tucci in a flamboyant role. Where The Devil Wears Prada goes astray is building tension, which is super important for the third act because Andy puts herself out on a limb for Miranda and there is simply not enough emotional value put into this relationship where I feel Andy’s loyalty seem justified. The only way the ending works is if we can stack moments where Andy is awed by Miranda’s power (because that’s what Andy desires most), but those moments are few and far between.
Without spoiling anything important, it comes down to Miranda’s influence within this world. On an abstract level, we know that she is a global power in the same way Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey holds great economic and social influence. I kept expecting the idea of the cerulean sweater to become a running theme or at least called back in a way to demonstrate how Miranda influences society in ways Andy doesn’t realize. But The Devil Wears Prada strangely goes out of its way to weaken Miranda’s prestige. For example, when Miranda can’t book a Miami flight during a hurricane, I was 100% expecting Andy to be surprised at how easy it is to secure a private jet for her boss because of Miranda’s social standing. The fact that her name alone is enough to defy nature’s might would have been impressive to say the least, and it would have given Andy and the audience something to point to as a reason for her loyalty — Miranda may be a despicable person, but at least she can make the impossible happen. (On the note of making the impossible happen, what will follow is a one-minute rant about Christian Thompson’s role and how it undermines everything the film is trying to achieve, so skip ahead if you don’t want to read it:)
Christian Thompson is a suave veteran of the journalism business. He’s also creepy (repeatedly and unabashedly hits on Andy even though she tells him she has a boyfriend) and a bad plot device. His biggest moment is to get an unfinished manuscript of Harry Potter (almost like how this film started from an unfinished novel manuscript of The Devil Wears Prada…hm…), which is a thematic travesty. One of the messages of the film is to say that women in the corporate world shouldn’t have to turn to men and/or act like men in order to achieve their career goals, but by the end, Andy has to get lucky with Christian and his connections (yes, this is a double entendre for those who’ve seen the film) to even survive her assistantship with Miranda. It shouldn’t have mattered that Miranda isn’t notable in literary circles. Like the “should have been” with the Miami flight, her name alone should have been enough to obtain the manuscript. Plus, the plot could have been more creative in devising a way for Andy to realize Miranda’s job is in jeopardy besides an ill-advised romantic liaison.
The Devil Wears Prada isn’t a terrible movie, but it never hits a tone and sticks with it. It’s not funny enough to wash away weaker moments, and it never commits to the level of dramatic tension the ending pretends to be. Serious moments are often undermined by a poor score (Example: the happy-sounding xylophone “tings” when Andy is forced to replace Emily as Miranda’s top assistant) and underdeveloped world-building (the lack of demonstrating Miranda’s cultural influence) doom The Devil Wears Prada. It doesn’t age well with the times; it’s a highly predictable and passé story about a woman who is chastised by the world for believing she knows more life than she actually does. It’s a shame that Meryl Streep delivers (another) career defining moment for a production that did not live up to its potential. I can’t help but wonder what it could have been if they had just waited a few years for the novel to be published.