Friday, August 10, 2007

Clearly a Movie I've

spent entirely too much time watching, let alone thinking about:

'The Devil Wears Prada', about life as an assistant to the icy, flinty, impossible editor of the fashion magazine, 'Runway', Miranda Priestley.

Now Meryl Streep? She is delicious* in this movie, from the way she quietly bites off "That's all." when she's done stripping the flesh from some poor underling to the sheer magnitude of her annoyance that is revealed when she purrs out "Why is no one ready?" drawling out ready until it becomes almost an epithet during a session to determine a magazine cover. She never raises her voice, yet she scares the poo right out of everyone. Including me.

Having said that, the protagonist, Andy, played with wide-eyed, dewy innocence by Anne Hathaway, needs to be slapped. She is the epitome of today's over-indulged, everybody gets a trophy 20-something who thinks they're supposed to be petted and their self-esteem bolstered every time they...do their job.

Don't get me started about her friends. Frankly, the best thing she could do is leave that bunch in the dust. Early on in the movie, she meets them for dinner, bringing a crapload of free bling she's scored from her job. Her girlfriend immediately knows the handbag is a Marc Jacobs and how much it costs, yet continually sneers at Andy's job and her increasing interest and fascination with the fashion industry. Two-faced, hypocritical snot.

And how does Andy leave this soul-sucking job that has robbed her of all of her integrity (petit larceny, to be sure)? By walking off from her boss during a work event and tossing her one assumes work-provided Blackberry into a fountain. After which, she scores a great job with a newspaper, because Miranda has sent the perfect reference for her. Gaa!

*I want Meryl's shoulders. And the perfect gray hair she sports in this flick.

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