Fashion makes the woman- at least in the 2006 comedy The Devil Wears Prada.
More accurately, the Fashion industry and magazines make the woman as the young college grad Andy Sachs winds up working as an assistant under the extracting standards of the powerful Miranda Priestly of Runway magazine, a major fashion publication.
Prada has been seen as a satire of the fashion industry and in particular Vogue's editor Anna Wintour.
What The Devil Wears Prada really is is what I call the Innocence meets Experience paradigmatic comedy. It could also be termed the Underling Film.
The formula which can also be seen in the 2008 movie The Great Buck Howard (which also stars one of the co-stars of Prada Emily Blunt) usually happens in this fashion: Step one, a young individual is hired as an assistant or minion of a successful, powerful or at least fairly well-known personality, Step Two, said individual is stuck doing a good deal of grunt work and personal errands, Step Three, the new assistant/ minion gets better at their job despite a number of setbacks including the difficult behavior of their employer, Step Four, the assistant/ minion either transforms personally or has a new mindset or view of life before moving on to another career or interest.
This is essentially the formula for The Devil Wears Prada. Andy must put up with the deftly executed put downs and nit picky ways of her boss Miranda during her entire tenure at Runway.
Actually its more than that. Andy has to basically live her life at that moment in sole devotion to her boss thus impacting her relationship with her live in boyfriend Nate a n d everyone else in her life.
I guess this is normally seen as the price for success in certain industries. Novelist Lauren Weisberger who formerly worked as an assistant to Vogue Editor Anna Wintour and wrote the novel the movie is based on seems to have regarded her job as a nightmare.
Screen writer Aline Brosh Mckenna and director David Frankel turn this nightmare job into a surprisingly effective workplace comedy.
The success of Prada is largely contingent on its cast. Meryl Streep plays Miranda Priestly almost like a member of royalty or an aristocrat. She never has to intimidate because her mere presence is intimidating enough. Streep's performance here is one of her best non-dramatic turns because she wisely avoids caricature and creates a near three dimensional woman who presides over her magazine like it is kingdom and the other employees are mere commoners.
Anne Hathaway is completely convincing as Andy Sachs. Hathaway can easily move from plain and drab to elegant and fabulous. Her very looks and esthetic fit the film precisely. Hathaway maintains an effective tone here never seeming too gawky or too polished later on
Emily Blunt shines as another Runway employee Emily in what became a break out role for the then young actress . Her quick witted, scene stealing work help buttress the film's material.
Stanley Tucci is also quite effective as Nigel, one of Runway's editors. His "gird your loins" warning as Miranda is coming into the office is a memorable scene.
Adrian Grenier does pretty good work as Nate in what has become a rather controversial character to fans of this film.
The Devil Wears Prada works well as a Innocense meets Experience comedy because it sets the formula in the rarified air of the fashion industry, a world rarely examined in any detail by most movies. Thus though this formula is a bit old, the movie makes its fresh because of this newer environment.
Prada is also important because it was a female lead film that became a fairly big box office hit- earning over $300 million on a $40 million plus production budget. In a film industry that is still very male dominated, Prada is symbol of potential financial success for projects centering on women.
Now, I'll admit I have no interest in fashion nor know anything about that industry but I do know that The Devil Wears Prada is a good film and that appears to make for a perfect fit.
