Thursday, July 20, 2006

The Devil Wears Prada (Stormy Pinkness)

“Wait a second! You want me to do what? Are you so lazy and incompetent that you cannot manage to do one simple task by yourself?” Pretty much every secretary on earth has had these thoughts at one point during those long, eight-hour days. The life of a secretary or assistant is usually one of non-existent thanks, long hours, and passive-aggressive behavior. With all this in mind, it is time to discuss The Devil Wears Prada, starring Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, and Stanley Tucci.
The Devil Wears Prada tells the story of Andy Sachs, a young journalist who is willing to do anything to start her career. Finally, she interviews for a job as an assistant to Miranda Preistly, who is basically the be all and end all of the fashion magazine world. After, seeing people run around like chickens with their heads cut off to please this woman and after a rather strange interview (personally, if I had been in Andy’s position I would have run the other way rather than taking the job), she gets the job that every girl who loves fashion would die to have. She soon realizes that there are sacrifices and challenges that she will have to face in this job and in her life. She will have to learn how to deal with her demanding new boss, who has a great amount of clout in the publishing world, and she will also have to balance her work life with her life with her friends and her boyfriend.
Anne Hathaway entertains in her portrayal of Andrea Sachs. She has just graduated from college and needs a job, so basically anything that has even the slightest thing to do with her chosen field would be great. She soon realizes that this is not as easy as she originally thought, until she finally receives the job as Miranda’s assistant at a fashion magazine.
As someone who works as an assistant/secretary, I thought that she portrayed the role believably I don’t know how many times I have been confused by vague instructions, or passive-aggressively completed a job that my boss thought was impossible and silently gloated after doing so.
Although Anne Hathaway did a good job as the assistant Andy, nothing could top Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Miranda Preistley, the Evil Fashion Dictator. The moment she showed up on the screen she made me feel like I should be doing work instead of watching a movie—I felt like I should pretend to be busy so I wouldn’t get in trouble. Streep’s character is someone who knows she is powerful and uses that to get anything she wants.
Throughout this movie, Andy is faced with a number of decisions that she needs to make. She continually tries to be true to herself and not end up like her boss, who is characterized as the epitome of evil. However, even though she goes through the movie doing everything with the best of intentions, it soon shows that people can change without even knowing it.
Immediately after the movie ended, I was not too impressed. I thought it was too long. However, as the days passed, my opinion of the movie continued to improve. Overall, it was not an awful movie. It was entertaining and had an enjoyable cast. After going back to work, a few days after seeing the film, my appreciation for it grew as I went through the same tasks that Andy does and also dealt with some of the same challenges.
And now for the moment that everyone has been waiting for: the rating. I would give this movie an 8. It was something I related to and the acting was very believable. I have heard complaints that the movie was not true enough to the book, but if you feel that then stick to the book, because last time I checked movies and books were different.

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