When I started watching Ugly Betty last year, it reminded me of The Devil Wears Prada,
a movie I'd heard a lot about but hadn't seen. I finally amended that
this weekend, and as I watched, nearly every scene reminded me of Ugly Betty.
The two explore very similar territory: smart but frumpy girl gets a
job as an assistant at a fashion magazine and overcomes obstacles to
distinguish herself. Plucky Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is like Betty,
while catty Emily (Emily Blunt) and sycophantic Nigel (Stanley Tucci)
are somewhat similar to Amanda and Marc and devilish editor Miranda
Priestly (Meryl Streep) recalls the scheming Wilhemina. Ultimately, I
like Ugly Betty better, but the movie, adapted from Lauren Weisberger's popular novel, is still very enjoyable.
When Andy seeks a job with Runway,
a premiere fashion magazine, she doesn't even know the name of the
editor-in-chief, but she doesn't let her ignorance stop her from trying
to make a strong impression. Though Miranda, a cool professional with
Cruella De Vil looks and a deadly calm demeanor, initially rejects Andy
with a curt "That's all," a line she repeats frequently as an assertion
that her authority leaves no room for debate, Andy's impassioned plea
wins her a shot at the job she's told a million girls would kill for.
It's not long, however, before she begins to see it as the job that
would kill a million girls...
Just attempting to fit in with this ultra-fashion-conscious group is hard enough, as Ugly Betty
demonstrates. But when your boss is completely unreasonable, making
demands at a mile a minute, many of them ludicrous tasks like getting a
flight out of a city in a hurricane and tracking down copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
a year before its publication, one can't help but wonder whether the
job is really worth all the trouble, even with the promise that it will
open doors to valuable opportunities.
Streep is just as
sensational as all the buzz led me to believe, and she's really what
makes this movie so much fun. But Hathaway is winning, and Blunt does a
great job as the demeaning but hard-working assistant who, unlike Andy,
aspires to work in the fashion industry. Probably my favorite character
is Nigel, who showers Andy with snark but also becomes her ticket to the
inner track, using his expertise to perform an extreme makeover on her
which, while not as dramatic as Hathaway's transformation in The Princess Diaries, is still pretty striking. I always enjoy Tucci, and he makes Nigel both entertaining and sympathetic.
The movie is a coming-of-age story about Andy finding her way in the
fashion industry and trying not to lose herself in the process. As such,
the romantic subplot feels like a side trip, especially since neither
of her love interests - live-in boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier) and
famous writer Christian Thompson (Simon Baker) - is very exciting.
Christian comes across as too cocky and looks about twice Andy's age,
while Nate just seems completely bland and disengaged.
But people don't watch The Devil Wears Prada
because they want to see a touching love story. They watch it so they
can see Streep pushing Hathaway around, and there's plenty of that,
though Miranda does eventually display a modicum of humanity. Is the
title really a fair assessment? I'll let you be the judge!
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