Not-So Fascinating Fashion
We'd Rather Be Shopping
By Jenny Peters

It's a good thing Meryl Steep is such a great actress. Otherwise, spending two hours watching “The Devil Wears Prada” would be akin to watching a by-the-numbers made-for-television movie, with an all-too-familiar story of a naïve young person going to the big city and being tempted to give up her values and morals in exchange for money, power and (of course) clothes.

This thinly veiled satire of how real-life Vogue editor Anna Wintour wields an iron hand at that magazine is based on the roman à clef written by her former assistant. A white-haired Streep (sporting the same distinctive color as Wintour) stars in the role of Miranda Priestly, the editor of the fictional Runway magazine, a fashion doyenne who chews up assistants and spits them out.

Enter aspiring journalist Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), a Midwest gal with a preppy fashion sense, and (gasp!) a size 6 body. Neither is acceptable in the haute couture New York world she enters as Miranda's new assistant, and thus her transformation begins. Naturally, you cannot be at a top fashion magazine unless you are size 2 or smaller, nor can you wear preppy styles or have frizzy hair, so Andy quickly shifts into the correct look, a transformation that Hathaway's inherent beauty makes easy.

Streep slices up the screen as an over-the-top, horrible boss in a terrific performance, but unfortunately, Hathaway's acting chops just can't carry her share of the load. She's the ostensible lead, but the combination of her uninspired performance and a predictable script is deadly, making us wish we had spent the time actually shopping for new clothes, rather than watching them go by on screen.

“The Devil Wears Prada” is for die-hard fashionistas only; so if you just MUST be the first to have the latest thing, by all means go and see the film. Otherwise, use the money you would have spent on tickets to start your own Jimmy Choo shoe fund.

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