The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

An ugly duckling story set in the world of haute couture, stilettos and ‘it’ bags. But don’t expect anything satirical or fresh about The Devil wears Prada, instead brace yourself for a flat and pedestrian watch. DWP leaves you time checking, heavy eyed and forever yawning. The main character of this bore-fest is Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway), a hardworking, driven and ambitions young woman with eyes and heart firmly set on a glittering career writing for the prestigious New York Times. However fresh-faced from college, Andrea finds it difficult to get her foot past the door or any other door in publications around New York City. Well that’s until Runway Magazine, a giant in the fashion world (just think Vogue) springs out of nowhere and accepts her as an assistant to the very powerful and influential Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Sounds absolutely perfect right? A job a millions girls would kill for, right? Well wrong, there is two big glaring problems for Andrea; 1. She knows absolutely NOTHING about fashion, so much so that she would think Tom Ford was a guy who made cars. While 2. Miranda Priestly is the meanest, coldest and most ruthless woman in the entire world, enough to send shivers down the spine of Cruella de Vil. To say Andrea is given a baptisms of fire on her first day working for Runway would be an understatement. From the instant she walks through the doors in her fleece, knee length skirt and flats combo she is frowned upon by the 5ft 8 glamour queens strutting down every hall. Andrea faces hostility from Miranda’s current assistant Emily (Emily Blunt) who doesn’t believe she belongs there and then there is Miranda, who barely acknowledges her existence until she has a million absurd tasks for her to do. With a job often leaving her stressed, exhausted and humiliated, Andrea often sulks and scampers her way back to her boyfriend and modest group of friends. But can she really complain when she has a job "a million girls would kill for"? Finally realising she must change to adapt, Andrea seeks the help of art director come Fairy Godmother Nigel (Stanley Tucci) to transform her into a stylish jetsetter. However the makeover changes more about Andrea than just her dress sense. You want wit, satire, biting criticism of the superficiality of the fashion business, rather disappointedly all you get in return is gloss, pandering and product placement. What you desperately want to see is Andrea succumbing to the vices of the high fashion world and slowly becoming Miranda-esk, however she always remains a safe distance away and never really becomes one of the ‘bad guys’. While the performance of Meryl Streep with her cold icy glare and misleading soft voice lifted the film. However anytime she left the screen it lost all presence and became dull, strange considering both Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway were Oscar calibre actresses. If I was on the judging panel of the Golden Raspberry awards, my gong would undoubtedly go to Hathaway for being a lacklustre bore and doing very little to emulate the ferocity and wit gifted to Andrea in the book. I adore fashion, but watching The Devil wears Prada sucks away all the verve, energy and artistry out of the business and leaves nothing but mediocrity, card board performances and tumble weeds.