The Devil Wears Prada is an entertaining movie. It revolves around two main characters Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. This movie is designed to entertain. It is the classic story of a girl that wants to make it and tries too hard. She takes it all for the team and sacrifices her personal life for the magazine. In the end she earns the respect from the boss and is given a glowing recommendation. The classic hard work prevails is nothing new. Most of the reviews of the movie make it seem shallow, yet entertaining.
The movie revolves around the conflict of the two main characters. Meryl commands attention when she is on the scene. She gives little emotion to any of the performance. But, we notice that this is a personality trait that has served her well in her chosen career. Streep’s performance is perfect with even the smallest facial expressions will determine the outcome. She did an enormous job with the role. Anne did a great job as the dolt. But, she demonstrates that with hard work and perseverance you can accomplish a lot. She sacrifices her relationships with her friends and family to succeed. The overall lesson is shown at the end of the movie where she walks away from Meryl when she is needed. She learns that the fashion world was not what she wanted in her life, because she wanted a life!
I think this film tries to make a small social statement. It shows the extreme nature of the fashion industry. Many critics relate the Runway magazine to Vogue. The film is a personification of when people are consumed by their jobs and stuff. Fashion at this level is normally unattainable. It trickles down and comes to all of us. The performance of Streep shows the cold nature of the business. After Anne’s character leaves Streep, we see a weight lifted off of her shoulders and she starts to see life in a different light. We also are shown how the actions of Streep affect her personal life. With being consumed by work she ends in a divorce and worries what the papers will say about her. We are given a slight glimpse into the caring side of her when she talks about how the papers will not be fair to her daughters.
I used rottentomatoes.com to look up some of the reviewers. I found many that liked and didn’t like the movie. I was actually surprised when I saw the 75% rating overall. One of the negative reviews caught my eye. Claudia Puig of USA Today gave it a rotten score. She basically liked only Meryl Streep’s character. Her review revolves around making despairing remarks against every other actor. She even goes as far as to say that too much time is spent on Anne’s character. She mainly has an issue with the watering down of Streep’s character from the book. Some of the other reviewers only liked it for its entertainment value. Many of them like that it was a movie that was entertaining in the wake of another Pirate, X-Men, and other big blockbuster movies.
The Devil Wears Prada is an interesting movie. It makes the statement of what can happen when work is taken too far. It could even be considered a Cinderella story when she goes from geeky writer to full-on fashion persona. The story and movie itself it primarily intended for entertainment. The time of the release gave women everywhere a reprieve from the action movies of the summer. The critics were mostly kind to the movie. Meryl and Anne’s performances swayed more than one of them to recommend the movie. They mostly realize that the movie itself is pretty average in most respects. Once again though, it was a good movie against the rest of the big ones of the summer.
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