Devil Drama

First of all, I want to say, if someone is going to see a movie, any movie, they should at least know the name of it. I went to see this with two girls from church and while I was waiting for them to arrive I found myself half-amused/irritated that some people buying tickets for this movie couldn't get the whole title out. One man bought the ticket for, "The Devil Wears, whatever it wears." Another woman bought a ticket for, "The Devil movie." It's called THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. Having said that, Meryl Streep does it again. She has hit a homerun as Miranda Priestley, the dragon-lady boss at fictional fashion magazine Runway, in the movie The Devil Wears Prada. Adapted from Lauren Weisberger's book, Devil tells of Andrea Sachs (played by Anne Hathaway of Brokeback Mountain and Princess Diaries fame), recently graduated from Northwestern, who really wants to be a writer but decides that working for NYC's most in demand and scariest boss is the way to open up doors to her writing career. If she works for Priestley for a year then she can get a job practically anywhere she wants. The book version of Priestley is meaner and scarier. In the hands of Streep, however, Priestley is shown to have more of a human side and Streep never goes over the top; it's certainly a role in which over the top would be quite easy. That's precisely the reason why the climactic scene is more subdued, kinder and disappointing. In the book, Andrea makes sure that Miranda gets her comeuppance in front of everyone. The denouement from the book has also been changed.

In terms of adaptations, it's not bad and if you are a fan of Streep then you won't be disappointed. Streep is by far the best actress currently working. It's still too soon to say that this role could earn her a 14th Oscar nod, however, it's not outside the realm of possibility. However, I think that there will be a number of more memorable roles that will push her out of the competition; unless she outdoes herself later this year.

peace,

paul