The Devil Made Me Do It
Summer Movies for the Fun of It
By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 21, 2006
Directed by David Frankel
Screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna
Based on the novel by Lauren Weisenberger
Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly
Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs
Emily Blunt as Emily
Stanley Tucci as Nigel
Adrian Grenier as Nate
By Charles Giuliano
July 4, 2006
During a dinner party on the deck with a magnificent view of Mt. Greylock and enjoying a glorious summer evening, I informed our guests that I had loved every scrumptious moment of 109 minute long escapist film "The Devil Wears Prada." Steve and Jan had attended Mission of Burma at Mass MoCA the previous night while Astrid and I were hunkered down at the sleazy North Adams Cinema in the most desolate mall in America. It so reminds me of the "Last Picture Show" but in a contemporary era. Our other friends, Robert and Rachel, New Yorkers, are serious and seemed shocked at our blatant pleasure in such populist escapist entertainment.
No, I insisted on trying to hold the ever shifting momentum of the conversation just long enough to convey how absolutely wonderful Meryl Streep was as the arch and controlling menopausal fashionista and editor of the only fashion magazine that matters, Miranda Priestly. Arguably, a fictional version of the real life diva/editor Anne Wintour. We learn that her's is virtually the only opinion on fashion that counts. And that to work for such a devilish diva is hell on earth. But, to die for. What perks. Office girls and underlings get to wear the casts offs of the editorial closets. We are talking here handbags that costs thousands and are simply not available to the uninitiated at any cost. Except the Chinatown knockoffs.
Hey, what the heck do I know about Prada? Like nothing. Zero. Nada. Clothes are things you pull out of the drier and wear until someone hints or says not to. It wasn't always that way. Back in the day I even had a hand made Nudies of Hollywood outfit with sequins to rival Elvis and Elton John. Still in the closet. I plan to donate it to a museum. But it stopped fitting a couple of decades back. At which point I decided it was a matter of mind over matter. The absent minded professor, rumpled and brilliant.
But fashion can be quite wonderful on others. Particularly the young and beautiful. This film just reeks of such specimens. Particularly the doe eyed Anne Hathaway whom Miranda refers to as "fat" and totally without any sense of taste and style. She is hired to slave for Frau Dr. Faust precisely for her lack of sophistication. Andy is to be a faceless drone at Miranda's day and night beck and call. Never more than a cell phone away from some impossible command. Like get me the unpublished manuscript of the next Harry Potter book, now, for my twin girls leaving this afternoon for vacation. That's all. Or else. When the awkward, "fat" (size eight but she slims by skipping lunch to a six) and inept Andy manages to spin the room of straw into gold she moves up the ladder past Emily who will Not accompany Miranda to the Paris Previews and acquire loads of designer freebies. Andy is sore of heart and conflicted but gets wonderful advice from an ersatz fairy godfather, Nigel (Stanley Tucci) in a send up performance. He tells her that only after losing everything, total crash and burn, are you ready for promotion. Nigel has lost everything, Many times over. And in Paris, we see Miranda, sans makeup, in a rare vulnerable moment, about to loose it all but to rise ever more gloriously in utter command having buried deliciously a potential rival and replacement. The cutting moment comes when the arch Miranda tells her sorcerer's apprentice, on the verge of losing her innocence, that "I see a lot of myself in you."
That's it. Miranda tosses the Prada and dumps the cell phone, her link to the evil control of Miranda, in a Paris fountain. We next see her having given it up for love. Or actually, Nate (Adrian Grenier) the boyfriend who loved her just as she was; fat and in frumpy clothes bought on sale. Nate, by the way, is the sortah dreamy Vince from HBO's the Entourage. This role proves that he is just a pretty face. Not that the script gives him much potential gravitas. It had me rooting for her to dump him and stick with Miranda.
The real life Anne Hathaway appears to be just as gorgeous, gawky and innocent as she is stunning and charming in the film. At least that's the way she appeared on Letterman. When I conveyed that our guests just howled in protest. Let's see how long that lasts seemed to be the consensus. "That's just how they have her packaged," a guest said.
But the heck with the cynics. Astrid and I had fun. After the movie we went next door for desert at Gringos. Summer dates are a blast. And Meryl Streep? Magnificent. In that silver hair and frosty demeanor she was just satanic. Gosh. The devil made me say that.
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