The Devil Wears Prada

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: June 30th, 2006 (wide)

Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Tracie Thoms 

Directed by: David Frankel 

Premise: Based on the best-selling novel, 'The Devil Wears Prada' stars Meryl Streep as high-powered fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly. Anne Hathaway also stars as Miranda's new assistant, a small-town girl in her first job out of college, trying to navigate a world she's only glimpsed in print - while surviving her impossibly demanding new boss.

[Kal]

I guess nobody here saw or plan to see this... but it was surprisingly good. The script, based on the book, is well done and the acting is excellent from both Streep and Hathaway. I was actually entertained for the whole time and thought it was very clever.

[matt35mm]

I liked it.  It's a light film, but a pretty delightful and funny one from start to finish.  Well made with excellent performances all around.

[modage]

i will say that a while back i saw a trailer for this film in the theatre.  but the trailer was not a trailer.  it was several uninterupted minutes of the film when hathaway meets streep.  it was such an unconventional thing to do that i want to applaud the studio for putting it out there.  and it made me almost want to see it if only to give them credit for trying something like that.     that is all.

[MacGuffin]

The Devil Wears Prime Time

With the amount of cheeks its put on seats, it's probably no surprise to hear that Fox Television have announced their plans to spin-off the hit film "The Devil Wears Prada" to the box.

According to Variety, Robin Schiff ("Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion") will write and executive produce the half-hour single-camera comedy, which has been a passion project for FTVS president Angela Shapiro-Mathes.

"I'm not looking to directly translate the movie into a TV show," Shapiro-Mathes said.

"That becomes a mistake," she explained. "The TV series will not be exactly like (the movie or the book). The reason you loved the book and the reason you loved the movie was these were characters you really cared about in a world you wanted to learn more about."

Interesting that the network would greenlight a show set around the world of a fashion magazine, just as ABC has found success with a show set in the same industry, "Ugly Betty".

[cron]

i will buy the dvd of this movie.
that is all.

[modage]

and it made me almost want to see it if only to give them credit for trying something like that.     that is all.

and i did see this.  and i will throw another thumbs up on the pile.  for a chick flick i thought it was excellent.  streep was really great and since this is the first real movie i've seen her in hathaway was someone who i'd like to see more of.  (kinda disappointed she's not in Knocked Up anymore).  the problem with so many chick flicks is that they're ridiculously over-the-top, predictable and boring but i thought this really stayed away from a lot of stuff that you might expect.  really well done.  movies shouldnt ever be less good than this.  that is all.

[MacGuffin]

since this is the first real movie i've seen her in hathaway was someone who i'd like to see more of.  (kinda disappointed she's not in Knocked Up anymore).

Hathaway on board for "Passengers" thriller

Anne Hathaway, who starred alongside Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada," has a ticket for "Passengers," a supernatural thriller being directed by Rodrigo Garcia ("Nine Lives").

Hathaway will play a grief counselor who helps six plane crash survivors and develops a special connection with one of them. When the survivors begin to disappear mysteriously, she suspects a conspiracy and becomes determined to uncover the truth.

Production is set to begin early next year. Columbia Pictures will release domestically.

Hathaway next stars as Jane Austen in "Becoming Jane," and has been cast to play Agent 99 in Warner Bros. Pictures' big-screen version of "Get Smart."

[MacGuffin]

Hmmm... Well I guess I'm gonna be the spoil sport here.

*SPOILERS*

I really did love the characters, from the two leads to Emily Blunt's and Stanley Tucci's. They were what made the movie worth watching. The story however was very cliched, with a series of scenes that presented an impossible task/situation that Andrea comes through completing, closely followed by scenes of her friends noticing how she's changed and not the same person they once knew, which we know she will return to being in the end. The relationship with her boyfriend is so shallow that she doesn't even cry over him when they separate; it's a part that if it were played by a female, it would be considered The Girlfriend role. I found more sympathy for Miranda announcing her divorce... and the husband was only in one scene. Overall, the film didn't up what Swimming With Sharks did better and funnier. The characters were there, just would have liked a more original storyline for them to be in.

[grand theft sparrow]

The absolute worst a movie can be without me completely hating it.  Like Mac said, the characters make it watchable.  Meryl Streep Oscar nomination, Anne Hathaway charming, yada yada yada... they're all great.  But it was too sadistic to enjoy. 

*LOTS OF SPOILERS*

The motivations and relationships of Anne Hathaway's character never seemed to be shown so much as left for us to imply. Even though the reason was established in the beginning, why this girl went for THIS job when she could give two shits about the fashion industry... at least show me that the Village Voice told her to piss off before we see her apply for this job almost a last resort.  I was never given a moment in this movie to understand why she would continue this thankless job and ingratiate herself with people who think she's a piece of shit.  Emily Blunt is a bitch to her the whole movie but she feels bad for "stealing" the Paris gig (which was obviously going to happen from the first scene in the office) under the impression that her job was at stake. 

And her father, friends and boyfriend... they really served no purpose except to show that she has a life outside the office, and they didn't really do a good job of doing that.  I think I'd have found her a little more sympathetic if she lived on her own with a cat.  The worst was in her friend's art exhibit when THE FRIEND sees the guy with the weird eyebrows kissing Anne Hathaway... that was a moment for the boyfriend!  Giving that moment to someone else, even if it's just to be less cliche, renders it pointless.  And then she fucks Eyebrows in Paris and we're supposed to be happy for her when Vinny Chase wants her back at the end?  Hell no! 

So what did she learn about herself?  She learns that she doesn't want to be in a world that she knew she didn't want to be in to begin with and only tried to fit in to keep her job.  And I'm supposed to give a shit?

But the performances were good.   

[Alexandro]

The motivations and relationships of Anne Hathaway's character never seemed to be shown so much as left for us to imply. Even though the reason was established in the beginning, why this girl went for THIS job when she could give two shits about the fashion industry... at least show me that the Village Voice told her to piss off before we see her apply for this job almost a last resort.  I was never given a moment in this movie to understand why she would continue this thankless job and ingratiate herself with people who think she's a piece of shit.  Emily Blunt is a bitch to her the whole movie but she feels bad for "stealing" the Paris gig (which was obviously going to happen from the first scene in the office) under the impression that her job was at stake. 

Hold on. A lot of people in this world take horrible jobs and stay in them with the sole intention of making contacts, earning money, and get ahead on their areas. I don't see what's so incomrehensible about that. Unless you've never had a job you dislike, in that case, I salute you and advice you to go on that path, cause you do suffer in this fucked up jobs, specially with bosses like Miranda, who can turn your life to complete crap. Yeah it's cliched, but it's also true. When you have a boss like that, that calls you anytime she wants, and leaves you no time to rest, you stop seeing your friends, live in constant fear, and end up putting your problems aside to solve the other person problems. And you stay in the job, no matter how fucked uo you know it is, or how much you complain about it.

I think the film is very succesful showing that. No masterpice but very good and as everyone else has said, ver well acted. The dialogues were very funny too. To me, the bad points were the boyfriend, all that subplot about her with the other guy, and that lame redeeming ending, just like with the other chick flick that I like, Mean Girls.

[grand theft sparrow]

I never lost sympathy for Lohan in Mean Girls because, even if it's because she narrates the movie, we know where she's coming from.  We know what kind of a person she is.  Her backstory shaped how she acted in a world that was new to her.  All we know about Hathaway is: A) she wants to be a journalist; B) she has parents, a boyfriend and two friends; and C) that's really it.  The character skated by on Hathaway's beauty and charm.

The problem wasn't that I couldn't understand why ANYONE would stay in a crappy job like that.  I just didn't see why SHE SPECIFICALLY would. Her entire future plans were summed up in one conversation with her father in one scene.  "Your mother and I are concerned that you've given up being a journalist" or whatever he said.  Other than that scene, we would have NO concept of what she wanted to do with her life.  It never played a part in the movie other than that dinner scene.  It's maybe mentioned once in a conversation with the boyfriend but  only as a reminder to the audience.  Her character had no passion about anything, personal or professional life or future goals, so why should I give a shit that she's getting her ass kicked until she decides to be a sheep and lose everything in her life that we're supposed to assume she cares about?  I would have enjoyed the movie just a little more if only it was concerned with giving us a reason to like the character except for the fact that she's played by Anne Hathaway.

There are a million publications in New York City.  We're supposed to believe that applying to be Miranda's assistant is her LAST resort before taking a retail job?  It's extraordinarily difficult for people to get into smaller-but-still-prestigious publications than the top fashion magazine in the world, that if a place like that is looking at your resume, you're good enough to get a job working a little more closely to reporting or copy in one of those smaller publications.  She had more options than just that magazine; let's see some just so we know how hard it's been for her to find a job and have a reason to understand/care why she wouldn't quit.

And the ending was so faux-redeeming.  OK, she finally quits but we don't see her try to patch things up with her friends.  We see the boyfriend who gives her a second chance despite the fact that she screws that douchebag in Paris.  That's not redemption, that's getting away with it.  If the gender roles were reversed, the female audience wouldn't stand for a guy ruining his relationship for a shit job, fucking some other woman, then realizing the error of his ways, and she takes him back without him really apologizing for how his job fucked up what they had (or for fucking that other woman in Paris).  It would have been a bolder move to end on her friends and ex still hating her, which is something she has to deal with, but at least she knows who she is and knows she won't end up like Meryl Streep.   But they went this happy ending route that requires you to ignore how unsympathetic she has become in order to enjoy it. 

This movie is a teenage girl masturbatory fantasy in the same way that Weird Science is a teenage boy masturbatory fantasy.