THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
What I know about fashion would fit on the pinhead of a needle. Every mention of a designer name in “The Devil Wears Prada” went in one ear and out the other. Do I really have to know about them to have enjoyed this movie? The answer is - Thank God! - a resounding, ‘No!’
It was more fun than anything I’ve seen this year. Based on the best seller of the same name by Lauren Weisberger, “The Devil Wears Prada” is said to be about her experiences working under editor Anna Wintour at Vogue Magazine. Should this have influenced how I looked at this movie in any way? Once again the answer is a resounding ‘No!’
All one needs to know about “The Devil Wears Prada” is that Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, and the relatively unknown - at least to American audiences - Emily Blunt give three of best performances so far this year.
But ‘Wait!’ you say. What about Anne Hathaway?
What I am about to say might sound downright dumb. Anne Hathaway has the least showy role as Andrea Sachs - her friends call her Andy. Andy is like a piece of tofu. She absorbs the flavor of her job and experiences until she becomes more like the people around her than her former self.
At the very beginning of Andy’s tale she is likable but delightfully dull. She has a steady boyfriend and lofty ideals. All that falls to the wayside with her first job out of journalism school at Runway magazine. Like a raw recruit, her defenses will be stripped away along with her everyday attire. Once her boot camp is over, she will wear the fashionable uniform of the day and be trusted to do the impossible like an aide-de-camp for a Commanding General. In the case of “The Devil Wears Prada” that general is Miranda Priestley, editor in chief of Runway, the magazine that sets the standard by which all fashion designers bow for approval in their quest for perfection.
Mirand Priestley is the final arbiter of taste. She has something akin to a photographic memory. Miranda can recall who, what, and where an original style, a replica of that style, and a bastardization of that style showed itself anywhere from Paris to the local bargain store. Like a seasoned warrior, she knows and understands her field of combat. Words are her weapons and when she speaks - everybody listens. She eats, sleeps, and drinks her magazine. Her daily diatribe is a gauntlet of off handed insults that are meant to maim the heart and soul of anyone within hearing distance from her lowly assistants to the world’s leading fashion designers. And if they can’t take it, they shouldn’t be at Runway or beck and call. More often than not - when it comes to fashion - she is right. That’s why her magazine is number one. That’s why every young fashion-struck girl fresh out of school would kill to work for her. Those who are willing must also be capable of enduring her verbal abuse Miranda is the master of the put down. They can be witty and uproariously funny.
Miranda Priestley is one of Streep’s most memorable roles. She inhabits her skin as if it were her own. By movie’s end it’s hard to imagine anyone else who could portray Miranda’s steely reserve and her one moment of vulnerability when she sheds all pretense to reveal the shreds of her humanity.
Every good fashion magazine needs a good art director like Nigel played by Stanley Tucci. Not content to sit on his laurels, he has a chance to strike out on his own but industry politics force him to accept his fate with the resignation of a good soldier. He has the talent and stick-to-itiveness that make him indispensable to Miranda. Nigel is gay but Tucci doesn’t use flamboyance as his calling card. He lets Nigel’s professionalism and clear eyed vision of his world define the man. He becomes Andy’s confidante, advisor and mentor. His advice: Don’t use his shoulder to cry on. Whatever Miranda wants - do it.
If Miranda Priestley is the Commanding General, her first assistant Emily (Emily Blunt) is the Drill Sargent expected to whip her new recruit - Andy - into shape. If her replacement fail, she fails. And she’s had one failure too many already. There is no time to teach Andy the ropes. All her lessons are knee jerk reactions to Miranda’s commands. Her bark has the force of Miranda’s own words. Emily is the Girl Friday who has endured every insult and put down imaginable with the expectation of being chosen by Miranda to attend the Fashion Event of the year - in Paris. All her hopes and dreams are focussed on being part of something bigger than herself. Her biggest problem: Andy professes to have no interest in the fashion business. Emily makes Andy painfully aware that the lack of total commitment means total failure. Andy - much to her credit - does not believe in failure. Emily’s second biggest problem: Andy survives her baptism by fire by adapting to each situation as if her life depended on it. She poses a threat to Emily’s dream. Emily is played by Blunt as if she were walking the high wire act only the wire is electrified. She treats Miranda’s every command as if it were a cattle probe dispensing electric shocks. Emily is determined to survive Miranda and Andy. By the end of the movie Emily - the Girl Friday - is frazzled but not broken. By the end of the movie Emily Blunt rivals Meryl Streep in stealing one scene after another.
Once again, Anne Hathaway plays it bland but I’m not so sure that it wasn’t part of the plan by HBO series director David Frankel. It certainly makes more sense for her to project the squeaky clean image perpetuated by her “Princess Diaries” movies than the vixen who seduced a gay cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain.” It makes her seduction by the glitter of the fashion world that much more believable. As the center of the storm at Runway Magazine she is more like the calm eye at the center of a hurricane.
There are a few moments in “The Devil Wears Prada” that smack of cliché plot conventions but luckily one - the interest of a freelance writer (Simon Baker) in Andy - has a payoff I never saw coming. It indirectly adds force to a scene where Andy unselfishly demonstrates hers loyalty to Miranda. Miranda’s response, understanding yet authoritative, demonstrates why she is a Titan in the fashion industry and why Meryl Streep is one of the premiere actors of her generation. I loved “The Devil Wears Prada.”
Copyright 2006
Here are some movies with Stanley Tucci that show the range of an actor respected by his peers but who has never had the Marquee value he deserves
For broad comedy:
“Beethoven” (1992) - Beethoven - the dog - not the composer. Tucci is not afraid to ham it up to good effect as a dognapper in this family friendly hit. With Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt and Dean Jones.
For thrillers:
“The Pelican Brief” (1993) - Tucci plays a hit man in this adaptation of John Grisham’s best seller. Julia Roberts is a law student who thinks there is more to the murders of two Supreme Court Justices than meets the eye. Denzel Washington is the only one who believes her.
For drama:
“Joe Gould’s Secret” (2000) - Tucci is a triple threat as producer, star and director of one of my all time favorite movies - a film that never found the audience I thought it so richly deserved. Ian Holm is Joe Gould, a charismatic vociferous character who bulldozed his way into the consciousness of New York’s Greenwich Village’s cultural community throughout the 40’s. He’s a Harvard graduate living a hand to mouth existence claiming to be writing the oral history of everyday people. Stanley Tucci plays Joseph Mitchell, a New Yorker magazine writer who met Gould by chance and, like others before him, is seduced by his charm. Gould becomes the subject of several of Mitchell’s celebrated articles.
Another triple threat from Tucci
“The Big Night” (1996) -.Two immigrant bothers try to make it in the restaurant business in New York in the fifties. Stan is the chef who treats his meals as works of art. This movie is a primer for Tucci’s attention to period detail that served him well in “Joe Gould’s Secret.” Ian Holm plays the arch rival.