21.9.06

The Devil Wears Prada


The Devil wears Prada is an adaptation Lauren Weisberger's book by the same name-which tells the story an aspiring journalist,Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) who finds her way to the job ''that a million girls in New York would die for'',as the personal assistant to the notoriously sadistic and heartless editor-in chief for Runaway Magazine,Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep).

The movie starts and progresses in a predictable fashion-it begins as a highly-stylized film about fashion,accompanied by the trendy,thin women with edgy one-liners,a world in which akwardly-dressed Andy feels inadquate for and alienated.But for the film to continue and end in such similar pattern would ultimately result in a shallow,weak film without plot or story-therefore we see that the writers have cleverly inserted lifelessons along the storyline,mainly presented by the two primary characters and their responses to the incidents which occur,but the story still lacks power as a film.And by not even watching the movie we can almost predict what happens in the story just by knowing the premise alone-we've seen similar things happen in such movies with the same storyline.

And the predictablity does not end there,heck it hasn't even started yet.By merely knowing the basic storyline we can accurately guess what happens-Andy DOES have a huge makeover,Andy DOES turn into someone she's not,her friends DO leave her saying ''this is not the Andy we know'',and poor Andy DOES regret doing so,and finally Andy DOES leave the job out of sudden realization about real happiness and all that bullshit.

But not all is ruined.

Thankfully,performances by the amazing Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep manage to keep us laughing and entertainedby this otherwise meatless movie-these actors manage to bring depth and breadth into characters which were originally one-dimensional and dull:Anne Hathaway portrays a strong (albiet a bit undecisive and unconfident) unlike the helpless and victimized character we expect to see,and instead of a loud,intolerable psychobitch as Miranda we see a woman whose presence of fear is induced through small,soundless but extremly powerful shots-a lifted eyebrow,a tilted head,a slight glare shrieks with coldness.


We start to become genuinely interested when the story takes a dive into deeper levels-from being horrified we start to sympathise with Miranda,when it is revealed that she is in a lot of suffering,and that her inhuman behaviour is none other a shield built to protect herself from pain and also a job requirement .One particular scene intrigued me most-when Miranda and Andy are in a limosine in Paris-they have a conversation that changes everything we've begun to believe about them-you think you know the characters so well until this scene-in which Miranda reluctantly confesses she ''sees herself'' in Andy,who,with Miranda's assistance realises that she's not the innocent or kind-hearted person she believes she is.

This movie won't change your life dramatically in any way (e.g:the way Pulp Fiction inspired me),and you'll probably forget about it in a week after watching-but it is enjoyable to watch good actors perform,and if you allow yourself to enjoy some light-hearted comedy without being overly critical or unaccepting you might just enjoy this movie-which,despite its many flaws received an average rating of 78% from RottenTomatoes-i found that the killer cast managed to sustain this boat from drowning,but the music choices and arrangement (Alanis Morrissette and KT Tunstall for a film like this?) and unashamed predictability was a straight thumbs down for me.

But.considering the book was awful to begin with (chic lit i can handle,this was something else),the film's quite an achievement.

The Devil Wears Prada was released in the US twenty decades ago,and opens in Australia on the 28th of September.

1 comment:

thewisekid said...

just saw TDWP after sahur this morning...

intriguing!

glad i left my job for a happier life --- which my mom is disagreeing coz i've been on the dole for 5 motnhs now!! --- although my bank account is extremely severed!!!

blue skies and everything nice~

=)