Fine actors,
fine clothes, and a fine script make for an entertainingly comic adaptation of
Lauren Weisberger’s bestselling novel about a dowdy girl (Anne Hathaway) who
lands a job working for a dragon lady (Meryl Streep) running a New York fashion
mag.
In The Usual Suspects,
Kevin Spacey says that the devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world he
didn’t exist. So maybe the second greatest is getting someone to sell her soul
yet think she still has it. Anne Hathaway plays Satan’s would-be victim in this
comic adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's bestselling novel. A frumpy would-be
writer who almost accidentally lands a job as an assistant to New York fashion
magazine editor Miranda Priestley, she becomes a fashion victim in more ways
than one. Priestly, who may or may not be based on Weisberger’s former boss,
Anna Wintour of Vogue, is played to a monogrammed T by Meryl
Streep. She’s not so much nasty as exacting, exhausting, and without time for
niceties. Hathaway showed that she could be surprisingly un-adorable in Brokeback
Mountain, but here plays, quite capably, what could be a grown-up version
of her Princess Diaries character. (Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci also
stand out as her snobbish coworkers.)
The early part of the movie gets some fun
digs in at the fashion industry. Yet, given that the film is practically a
rag-trade magazine come to life, it also celebrates it. Streep as Priestly
delivers up a defense of her trade that may nearly convince you that buying a
designer label is performing a public service. The withering looks the
fashionistas give Hathaway’s dowdy duds is nearly worth the price of admission.
But high-level cattiness is hard to sustain for two hours. The story flags
slightly as it becomes about work versus personal life, dueling boyfriends, and
becoming the kind of person you once detested. (There’s the devil part.) However,
the ending, significantly different from the book, redeems the movie. And
another nice thing is that you wind up empathizing with each of the characters,
even the one who’s sold her soul knowingly.
viewed at PFS screening; reviewed 6/29/06; posted online and rating revised slightly upward 8/14/13
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