The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Directed by David Frankel. Starring Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, Adrian Grenier, Tracie Thomas, Rich Sommer, David Marshall Grant, Daniel Sunjata. [PG-13]

Fresh-faced college grad Andy (Hathaway), an aspiring journalist, somehow lands a job with a fashion magazine as one of the personal assistants to the demanding editor-in-chief (Streep). This, of course, means: 1) Her life is about to become a living hell, 2) She’s going to get better at the job and eventually even impress her ruthless boss, and 3) Life lessons will be learnt and everybody of consequence “wins” in the end. Streep is a great enough actress to make a character materialize out of thin air, bringing complexity to a one-note cartoon, though the pale writing from Aline Brosh McKenna (adapting Lauren Weisberger’s roman à clef) doesn’t do her (or the rest of the cast) any favors. Tolerable when focusing on Streep’s imperious sniping (nicely underplayed as a whispery needle prick instead of a ferocious snarl) or the droll snarkiness radiating off of Andy’s co-workers played by Blunt and Tucci; anytime the movie drifts away from them into Andy’s personal life, though—including a wimpy bore of a boyfriend (Grenier) and a greasy bore of a temptation (Baker)—it’s borderline unbearable. And those little speeches extolling the tremendous virtue of the fashion industry? …Well, it is supposed to be a comedy.

40/100