The Devil Wears Prada

"The Devil Wears Prada" wasn't as much of a chick flick as I expected it to be. Entertaining, with a mixed message for women trying to make professional choices, this is a nice diversion for those of you seeking something other than superheroes and pirates. If nothing else, "Prada" provides Meryl Streep an opportunity to give a tour de force performance.

Anne Hathaway stars as Andrea, an aspiring writer struggling to get a job in New York City. Hoping to make connections on the inside, she accepts a job as an assistant to Miranda Priestly (Streep), the editor of fashion magazine Runway. This is no simple task, as Miranda is a dictatorial and extremely demanding boss. Andrea's efforts are also thwarted by the fact that she has no fashion sense, at least in the eyes of the people she works with. The movie cleverly mocks the fashion industry by portraying them as shallow people who feel they run the world by determining what clothing colors will be "in" that year.

Seeking acceptance, Andrea turns to Runway fashion guru Nigel (Stanley Tucci) to turn her ugly duckling appearance around. Of course, he works wonders, causing even the rigid Miranda Priestly to pause in her activity. Andrea's transformation doesn't stop there though. While Nigel has assisted with the outer appearance, her friends soon discover that the inner Andrea that appeals to them is changing. As she struggles to gain the respect of coworkers, Andrea's personal life, including her relationship with her live-in boyfriend (Entourage's Adrien Grenier), becomes non-existent. Instead, she gets swept up in business trips to Paris, a brief fling with another writer she respects, and doing the bidding of Miranda Priestly. Everything comes to a head when Andrea realizes that she is becoming more and more like Miranda, and she has to decide whether that's the path she wants to follow.

"Prada" would be a lackluster movie without Streep's amazing performance. Tucci also serves well as a voice of reason for Andrea. Other than that, the others simply cannot keep pace. Hathaway is fairly bland throughout, and becomes less believable as the story progresses. Other characters are simply stereotypes blown out of proportion. Streep, however, will be on my Oscar-hopeful list as we go through the year. The laughs are constant throughout, the emotion is there, and the story flows at a nice pace. The message for girls, and women, is mixed though, as the moral of the story is pretty much that you have to be beautiful and cold-hearted if you're going to make it in business and in life. It does, however, work for "Prada". I give it a B.

"The Devil Wears Prada" is PG-13 with a running time of 106 minutes.