Review of The Devil Wears Prada (2006) by Hn H — 06 Oct 2012

I had heard some good things about this film somewhere. Fashion does interest me quite a bit and when the opportunity presented itself to watch the film I took it. I don't have high expectations aside from hoping to get a little bit more of a woman's perspective on fashion. I felt I went into watching a chick flick with a pretty clean slate.

It almost feels like there is really nothing at all to say. The film talks about fashion just the way the average Joe, or Jane, thinks about that world. It takes all the Hollywood cliches of the past 50 years, gives it a new face, rinse/repeat. Girl faces wolves, girl lifts herself up by her bootstraps, her friends are alienated, the love interest feels threatened by "better" men, and in the end the heroin rises above it all forsaking all the ground cover by quitting and doing something else. There is no taming of the wolves. They will always just be nasty people that run the upper parts of society and there is nothing us "little people" do but accept it and go our separate ways.

Maybe this is the truth. Perhaps that is the only thing we can do. But if we follow the author of the book's example, we exploit the wolves and don't seem a whole lot better. Yes, it's a nasty old system, but what are you going to do about it except complain and write generic feel good garbage about it? Perhaps the book was much better than the film. I would honestly not mind giving it a go, but right now? I will be a good long while before I attempt to watch another film of the "chick flick" genre.