The Devil Wears Prada

First, please see my book review for The The Devil Wears Prada on my blog at Walking Toward Wisdom and on Amazon.com. I give the book a pretty good review in spite of the widespread criticism against it. Conversely, with the film, I have to admit that the book was better and that film was really, well, too small for Meryl Streep.

Meryl Streep really made this film a hit while the other actors were entirely supporting, even the woman/model who played the book's main character, Andrea Sachs. Andrea was played as a woman straight from college with no wits about her save her ability to have a sexual relationship with a man. There was no complexity about her character, no conflict. Even the story line in the book about Andrea's drunken friend was eliminated.

Comparing the film to the book is not entirely fair, of course. So on the merits of the acting alone, the screenplay, the direction, and all that go into producing a blockbuster film, my final review is that The Devil Wears Prada is a flimsy tale without much substance worth spending money to watch. Fans of Meryl Streep, will be pleased, however, for Ms. Streep entirely steels the show. In this role, she could have acted the entire film alone, saved the studio tons of money to make a better film, and even won an Oscar in the end. It was really that bad, and Meryl Streep was really that good.

A movie about a high powered executive in publishing, struggling to achieve the highly sought after work/life balance, raising two children all in a world that values beauty and youth over aging wisdom would have been a better movie. Yet, for a light (and, I do mean light) film with a simple story line and not much challenge, the movie awaits for your viewing pleasure.