Often resembling The Princess Diaries with better clothes, it’s not too surprising to see Anne Hathaway heading the cast of this US box-office smash. Like that film, The Devil Wears Prada is a straight up wish-fulfilment comedy with Ms Hathaway essaying a ‘serious’ journalist who lands a job at Vogue clone Runway. At first she’s sniffy about the whole deal, but figures that working for the superbly imperious fashion queen Miranda Priestly (Streep) will benefit her career. Soon, however, she’s seduced by the lifestyle and married to her job.
Will she swap her glorious new wardrobe for her Nice Boyfriend? You’re probably way ahead of her. As a satire on the fashion industry, The Devil Wears Prada is good sprightly fun. Too often though, it relies on fabulous clothes changes to jolly the action along. There is no real sense of dilemma for the heroine or anything that might pass for plot development. The principals, particularly Streep and Tucci, may be amusing, but they’re grotesque enough to make Absolutely Fabulous look like a Rossellini film.
Still, as a girl’s night out, it’ll do very nicely.