The Devil Wears Prada "C"

A Size 6 My Ass!

I have to admit I was looking forward to seeing this film. I had missed it in the theaters and I rented it the first day it came out. I heard rave reviews about Meryl Streep's portrayal of the incredibly demanding and bitchy boss of a high fashion magazine. I also knew that I liked Anne Hathaway. Even when she was doing Disney fluff, she showed herself to be a pretty good actress. I realized she was smoking hot after I saw her in "Havoc" and I was looking forward to seeing her wear supermodel clothes and looking sexy.Well the duo did not disappoint. Hathaway looked very hot in those clothes and Streep was very bitchy. What I didn't like was the story, especially the ending. The first thing that bothered me was that one of the running jokes of the film was that Hathaway's character, Andy was too fat. I was like, what? Now I could understand if Scarlett Johansson was working there that the stick insects would call her "fat" but Anne Hathaway? She's anorexic. That just bothered me because the script obviously called for it but they didn't cast that type of actress and never bothered to take those lines out. Seems kinda lazy. Okay, so maybe I'm being picky.

Now, I know this is a movie review but I feel a tangent coming on. When did ambition and wanting to change yourself for the better become such a crime? Or a sellout? Now I'm not sure if this is a Hollywoodization of reality or does the general population actually feel this way?

In the film Hathaway's character gets the assistant to the editor job straight out of college, where she has no experience in the real world (college writing does not count). She acts like she doesn't need the job or care about the job and fully admits that she knows nothing about fashion. She is given the job that several people go out of their way to say "that millions of girls would kill to have your job". Did I mention she goes to a fashion magazine interview dressed like Kathy Bates in "Misery"? Anyway, many jokes are made at the expense of the "stuck up, uptight, shallow and stressed out fashion people" by her friends and boyfriend who are the very definition of uneducated, lazy losers. Hathaway stresses about having to work long hours, obviously because she has never had to work before in her life. She conducts herself like a spoiled rich kid that always had everyone doing things for her, never once taking an iota of responsibility for her decisions.

Of course as the movie goes on we see her change before our very eyes. She is actually learning responsibility, work ethics and is growing as a person. But is she selling out? Is she conforming? Can she actually have a private life while becoming successful? Well, at about 3/4 of the way in she misses her boyfriend's birthday because of work. He pouts and gives her the silent treatment and makes her feel guilty. Is he 10 years old? What a loser. In fact, all her friends are losers that are hopelessly stuck in ruts and when they see someone get out of their rut they get pissed because they lack the courage and fortitude to actually better themselves and their lives. My thoughts are that when you reach a certain level of success then you need to cleanse yourself of your past life associations because those people will always see you as you were before and not what you've become. Get rid of them, there is nothing wrong with that. Why do people always say that it's forgetting where you come from or some such bullshit like that? The people from your past just exist to bring you down, plain and simple.
Boy, that was a tangent!

There is another scene when her so-called friend sees Hathaway talking (okay flirting) with another guy in a gallery and totally overreacts and just starts yelling at her saying "The girl I used to know wouldn't do that, blah, blah" and storms out. I cringed when I saw that. If that happened to me, I would jettison that person from my life forever and I would do it immediately.

So we are nearing the end of the film and of course Hathaway is doing her job perfectly, but does she revel in her success? Does she use this experience as a stepping stone to her dream job of a writer? No, of course not. She ups and quits her job in Paris and goes back to her loser life with her loser friends. The thought of her selling her soul was just too much for her to bear. What utter bullshit.

So what's the moral message here?
1. It's okay to never try to better yourself because if you do you are only selling out.
2. Keep negative friends around you because they will always remind you of the person they knew you as.
3. Don't have ambition or work long hours because that's no way to live your life.
4. Hang around people that always minimize what you do.
5. In the end turn your back on all of your accomplishments and go back to a nothing existence.
6. Working hard and paying your dues, otherwise known as "sacrifice" is a sell out.
7. Trying to grow as a person is wrong. You should always remain who you are.
8. If you are successful than you must be shallow.

Back to the film.
Even with many issues, the cast was amazing. Stanley Tucci was great as the not so stereotypical gay fashionista. But Emily Blunt was the real surprise here. Her performance was stellar. She was so good and natural as the stuck up but passed over assistant that I would hire her in a heartbeat to be my stuck up assistant. Imagine what I could get done!

So, that's my lecture on "The Devil Wears Prada", but don't take my word for it, see it yourself and decide. The film might be great and I might just have issues.