The Devil Wears Prada

*There will be some spoilers in this review, so you’re free to skip this post if you want to. If you’re okay with reading the spoilers, then enjoy.*

For this week’s film review, I decided to go down the long and arduous path leading to the wonderful world of chick flicks. I use the term “wonderful world” lightly because there is a mixture of good chick flicks and bad chick flicks. This film I decided to watch is one that I would file in the good chick flick category. The Devil Wears Prada is one of those movies that I don’t remember buying but I don’t regret buying it because I love watching it from time to time. It isn’t a typical romance movie. In fact, it’s categorized as a comedy-drama film. However, in my honest opinion, I would say that it’s more drama than comedy because it really fleshes out the dramatic moments well. But it does have some moments that make me laugh.

However, the main thing I got a kick out of was watching this movie with my husband who never even heard of this movie before watching it. Because of this, I had to give him a general run down before we began the movie. But once we had started it, he seemed to follow it pretty well.

The film starts off with a series of comparisons of different women. Some of them are beautiful, trendy, and fashion forward and in the middle of all of this, we have Anne Hathaway who plays an average-looking woman. Supposedly the relatable woman. But looking back on this after seeing it so many times, I now see it’s an early foreshadowing of what will happen with Anne Hathaway later on in the film. Anne Hathaway’s character is Andy (or Andrea) Sachs; an aspiring journalist that graduated from Northwestern University and is given the chance to work as an assistant at a fashion magazine. However, Andy’s attitude towards the fashion industry is anything but pleasant. In fact, one of the things I like about this movie is the contrast between Andy’s personality and the world that she is involved in. There’s a moment towards the beginning where Meryl Streep’s character explains to Andy the importance of the fashion industry; using Andy’s blue sweater as an example of how it was chosen by a team of fashion experts that were going off of the popular style trends (mostly color schemes as she was pointing out the shade of blue of Andy’s sweater). The whole beginning sequence of Andy doing her job and voicing her opinion about the fashion industry is very awkward and uncomfortable, but it fits given the nature of the situation. It’s relatable to anyone that starts a job in an industry that they know nothing about, especially if people have strong opinions about the industry that they are working in. It further emphasizes the point of when to speak and when to just keep your mouth shut.

This is further emphasized by Meryl Streep’s character, Miranda Priestly. A serious fashion editor-in-chief of Runway magazine who takes control of everything that goes on at the company on a day-to-day basis. She has a “my way or the highway” attitude that can cause anyone’s mental state to fry, which is exactly what we see with Andy as she goes through the stressful moments of being a second assistant to Miranda. On top of Miranda’s moments, we have Emily Blunt playing Miranda’s first assistant, Emily Charlton, who adds to the immense pressure that Andy goes through. However, Emily’s viciousness tones down as the film goes on and we understand her position. In the beginning, the pressure of being the first assistant is less than the pressure that Andy is going through being the second assistant. But when Andy’s job performance surpasses Emily’s, it seems like more pressure is being put on Emily to step things up. This results in her being a character that we come to sympathize with, especially when everything comes to a breaking point. Emily’s one desire is to go to fashion week in Paris with Miranda as she will get to wear couture and meet a wide array of people like fashion designers and editors for other magazines. However, at a benefit event where Emily and Andy are tasked with helping Miranda to remember the names of all the guests at the event, Emily stumbles on one of the names. This leads to Andy stepping in to help. Later on, as Andy is delivering the mockup book to Miranda’s apartment, Miranda asks to speak with Andy where she tells her that Emily will not be going to Paris and Andy will be taking her place instead.

This is the biggest point of the film as it puts Andy’s values to the test to see how far she would be willing to go. Which is basically the entire premise of this film. Andy is forced to follow the orders that Miranda has given her because she is operating on her personal plan to work at Runway for a year and then hopefully find a job as a reporter or a writer at another company. She has put her career before her desires and as a result, her personal life suffers from her choices. Her relationship with her boyfriend and friends gets ruined, and she takes the trip to Paris, crushing Emily’s dream.

While in Paris, she finds out from Nigel Kipling, the art director of Runway magazine, that he is given the opportunity to be the creative director with a rising fashion designer by the name of James Holt. Nigel is excited about this opportunity because as he puts it he gets to come to Paris all he wants and get to see Paris. All while working alongside James Holt to oversee everything that is happening with his company. She also discovers that the board of Runway magazine is looking to replace Miranda with her rival Jacqueline Follet. Andy rushes to find Miranda to tell her the news, but Miranda doesn’t bother to listen. However, during a luncheon when Miranda is giving a speech on stage, she announces that Jacqueline Follet is actually going to be the new creative director for James Holts’ company instead of Nigel. This leaves Andy and Nigel appalled, and while Andy is in the car with Miranda, we find out that Miranda already knew that the board was going to replace her and instead, she offered them a proposal to keep her as the head but sacrificed Nigel’s upcoming position with James Holt. Andy is disgusted with this revelation, but Miranda reminds her that she did the same thing with Emily when it came to the Paris opportunity. This causes Andy to rethink everything that has happened so far and the sacrifices that she made and she makes the decision to leave Runway magazine and looks for a job at another publishing company.

Overall, this film really teaches a lot about how far you would be willing to go just to keep a job. I really like the growing relationship between Emily and Andy and Andy and Nigel. In the beginning, Nigel has no idea who Andy is, but it’s made clear early on that he’s not a mean person like Emily is made out to be. However, as I mentioned before, Emily’s animosity is understandable, so it’s not like she’s made out to be the villain like Miranda is. Nigel, on the other hand, helps out Andy whenever she comes to him whether it’s for fashion advice or even general advice. Nigel even helps Andy when she transforms from being an average woman with no sense or understanding of fashion, to a trendy, fashion-forward coworker that everyone likes.

Another thing that I noted, which I had to explain to my husband was the style and the fashion industry in the mid-2000s when this film came out. During the film, my husband was asking me about whether there were women that were actually a size 2 or a size 4. I explained to him that sample sizes in the fashion industry were notoriously known for being small. And during this period, there was a lot of pressure on women to be a smaller size. Unlike now where we are incorporating a more body-positive message, this film sheds light on the opposite end of the spectrum. There are a lot of anti-body positive messages, but that was the unfortunate norm for the time period that this film came out. People would not be embracing body positivity until later on in the 2000s’. It is kind of sad looking back on it now.

Overall, I really did enjoy this film and I would recommend checking it out if you are interested in a chick flick that gets you thinking about the choices you make in life.