Critic's Grade: A-

We've all had one of those bosses. That's a very vague and not very specific phrase I have just written. "One of those" is more specific than any, and when you hear the word "boss", one ultimately thinks of harsh-minded commander. When you mesh the entire phrase together, one of those bosses, you begin to understand exactly what I mean. We're not talking about a videogame challenge, and we're not talking about Tony Danza on that old T.V. sitcom. I am talking about your boss. The boss at your office who may be telling you to work late, the boss who might be yelling at you for losing the Johnson account, or the boss who would like to see you in his office immediately and that is the last time you see them.

In 2003, a woman named Lauren Weisberger wrote a best selling novel about a young lady working for an over-demanding boss as a personal assistant and slowly watches the rest of her life go down the drain. The book's storyline is modeled after her own experiences working as an assistant to the editor in chief of Vogue Magazine, Anna Wintour. She denies that the boss in her book is modeled after her own boss, but it's a little late for that. Besides this book being a Chick lit., it is also a Roman ? clef, or in other words a novel describing real-life events behind the disguise of fiction.

Andrea "Andy" Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is a naive young woman in search of pretty much any job in New York City she can take without being embarassed about what she does. She's just graduated from Northwester and her career aspirations are writing and journalism. Her friends, Lilly (Rent's Tracy Thoms), Doug (Rich Sommer) and boyfriend, Nate (Adrian Grenier), have always been behind her when it came to her career, but have always worried a little about what she lands in the end.

She has managed to get an interview to be the second assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the editor in chief of Runway Magazine. Runway sits as ruler of the fashion magazine empire. Unfortunately, that would make Miranda the Emperor, and yes, she does rule with tyranny. The English woman interviewing her is the new first assistant, Emily (Emily Blunt) and she too is nasty, but we can already tell it is because she is overworked. This foreshadows that Andy is definitely not in a for a fun ride. Miranda insists that she interview the new girl herself, for Emily has simply brought in disappointments. After taking heavy criticism about her style, surprisingly, she is hired. After desperation kicks in from Andy after she faces the evil from Miranda, a light of hope shines upon her, when a bald man named Nigel (Stanley Tucci) encourages her to keep her chin up and helps her get on the right track.

Chick flicks are easier to watch than most other men claim them to be. Though, I actually find the comedies to be much easier to watch than the dramas. I'm not completely sure why, but it's probably because both men and women seem to agree, that women have it worse most of the time. Women are obviously more self-concious about the way they look than men (most of the time), unfortunately even in this country, things tend to be more biased towards men than women, and especially at young ages the bullying between girls is always much more serious and emotionally damaging than that of boys. When you think about it, anyone would probably enjoy the humorous troubles of a woman, rather than the emotionally dramatic ones. Not trying to offend anybody here, but humor is a thing of it's own. You know what they say, it's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt.

When it boils down to the feel of the film and the way it is shot by director David Frankel and cinematography by Florian Ballhaus, it reminds you a lot of The Office. It also makes you question, with a show like that, would it be different if woman played the boss instead of Steve Carell? What if a woman wrote the show? Would it be much different if she did, would the humor be the same? Quite possibly, psychologists across the globe of both sexes, state that men and women see the world around differently in most situations.

The way it is shot you get the dramatic feel of an office, whose workers serve an important role in society. In this case it is fashion. Quirky things happen here and there, and like The Office, there is the occassional awkard vibration.

Meryl Streep plays the ruthless and cynical Miranda Priestly, as by the title of the movie, she is the devil in prada. Streep dresses stylishly and fashions white hair combed in a curl to the left side of her head. Her character reminded me a lot of Glenn Close back in 101 Dalmations as Cruella Devil. Devil (pronounced Deville), devil in prada, perhaps this was another inspiration to her boss. She speaks in a soft tone of voice, and unlike many bosses, she simply uses the phrase "That's all?" when she is done talking to you. The chemistry of that phrase used with emotion on Hathaway's face informs the audience that this is how she gets you. The guilt from that one simle phrase of disappointment haunts deeply. Though, with the soft-tone of voice and way she looks at Hathaway, there is perhaps more to her than meets the eye.

Anne Hathaway is the geeky, not so stylish, Andy Sachs. Her character undergoes the most emotionally challenging storyline. Andy is cheery and confident, becomes emotionally devastated, gets back on her feet, and eventually learns how to do what she is expected. She is also quite confused and unsure about her future, especially of that of with her boyfriend when a fashion writer played by Simon Baker flies in and sweeps Andrea of her feet.

The writing is the foundation of the entire film's ensemble. Aline Brosh McKenna adapts most of Lauren Weisberger's novel and brings it to the big screen. The writing is both dramatic humorous and though things are funny, they remain quite serious. One bit of information that I read that was not included in the novel, but written originally for the film was Nigel's poweful monologue about the history of Runway, what is resembles, and what it means to so many people. Somehow and for some reason, fashion means a lot to people, but for some people, such as Streep's character, it's all they have.

All Reviews by Max Einhorn [Home page]
If you are the author of this review, you may edit it by signing in.