Saturday, August 12, 2006

Movie review: The Devil Wears Prada

This was supposed to be a review of the cult classic "Snakes on a Plane" but the movie listings were deceptive and it doesn't come out until thursday night. I went to see "The Devil Wears Prada" instead because while the theme is different the villain still gets killed by a mongoose.

If you've seen the trailers then you already know everything about this movie. Anne Hathaway goes to work at a major fashion magazine under the command of nightmare boss Meryl Streep.
For Meryl Streep's part they seem to have used the opportunity to try out the technology intended for next year's movie "Magneto" where they use computers to strip 30 years off of Sir Ian McKellen. That or lots of spackle.
Nobody from New York is going to believe me, but Anne Hathaway looked better before the makeover. Ok, there was that one dress that she wore to the party, but her hair, makeup, and clothing looked better before she was made "fashionable". Granted, they spent a lot of time, effort, and makeup to make sure she looked good before they made her "look good", but in life in general I prefer a t-shirt and jeans woman.

Oh, right, the movie. They drew this from page 62 of Sir Francis Jacob's 1639 book "Every Plot Ever", the sequel to his not terribly popular book "Every Character Ever". Someone from a midwestern backwater like Chicago or St Louis goes to New York thinking she can make it big in the newspaper biz. After getting turned down for dozens of jobs she applys for a job as the assistant to the Editor in Chief of a huge fashion magazine because after one year there she should be able to be a success in any magazine or newspaper. The boss is an abusive monster who hates her clothes and insists she work all hours of the day and night. She alienates her friends and boyfriend with her long hours. They say she's changed, but the movie only really shows that through her not being quite as critical of runway models as she used to be. Eventually she realizes she's becoming like her boss and quits to work for some small newspaper... after replacing her boss's driver with a mongoose.

The boss isn't as nasty as I expected. She was just movie boss nasty instead of real world boss nasty.
And at the end the boyfriend is moving to Boston for his dream job, basically tells her he wants her to go with, she all but agrees, and then she goes for her new job. So... I guess... she's not going? All this and she's still breaking up with him?

Good movie, but I won't get it on DVD.

No comments: