Movie review - The Devil Wears Prada

Pooey, baomanda and I decided to take a night off and watch a movie that totally appealed to each of our fashion desires.

TDWP follows college-grad and journalist wannabe Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) as she works as a personal assistant for the editor-in-chief of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep at her imperious best!). Andy initially takes the job even though she's not particularly interested in fashion, but after being informed that spending a year as Miranda's assistant would open numerous doors within publishing for her, she spends her days and nights and dignity trying to keep up with Miranda's demands. The moral of the story is really that one shouldn't sacrifice their friends, family and self-respect in order to keep a job if it means becoming like someone you hate.

But you wanna know what message we three got? Stuff that!!! I'll take the clothes and shoes!!!!

The transformation of Andy BJC (before Jimmy Choos) to Andy PFM (post-fashion makeover)...it's wonderful! Before...she was wearing cable-knit jumpers that made her look 5kg heavier than what she was and completely hid her lovely figure. This was a great movie for clothes. I read on the TDWP wiki entry that Chanel asked to costume the Andy character...and *sigh* they did a great job of it. Check out this white coat ensemble on the right! Brilliant!!! I can't find a photo of it, but my favourite outfit of hers in the movie was a black leather bustier/pencil skirt outfit with furry accessories that Andy wears in Paris. *le sigh*

Acting....well, Meryl Streep always does a good job. Actually, she does a fantastic job of making Miranda a well nuanced uber-bitch with only a few words of excellent diction, but also complex. Miranda is the bitch she is to keep her position in the fashion world. Anne Hathaway spends most of the time looking wide-eyed, the development of Andy as a character is not so much seen via her acting, its the work of the costume and make up department. As I said before, her clothes have a dramatic makeover, but what also happens is that as Andy becomes more confident of her position, her makeup changes from being natural to great lashings of bright red lipstick, pale foundation and liquid eyeliner (left). It looks fantastic.

I haven't read the book so I can't comment on how they compare, but if you want a movie with great fashion, have loads of fun.
6-7/10
(For those wanting to know what I thought of the book, the review is here.)