The Devil Wears Prada

Movie Information

In Brief: Meryl Streep (when she was still trying), Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci keep this comedy going about the ins and outs of the fashion magazine world — and in the process, they buoy up Anne Hathaway (whose role is more at fault than she). It's mostly a lot of good fun with some terrific performances, but when none of those first three names are onscreen (fortunately, they mostly are onscreen), things tend to bog down.
Score:

Genre: Comedy
Director: David Frankel (Hope Springs)
Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Adrian Grenier, Simon Baker
Rated: PG-13

Though I hadn’t watched The Devil Wears Prada (2006) since it originally appeared (though it’s been on my shelves most of that time), I was curious to see how I felt about it when this screening came up. Somewhat remarkably, my reaction was almost identical to what it was back then. The film is a surpringly stylish (especially given director David Frankel’s subsequent work that makes this look like an accident) and as long as Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci or Emily Blunt is onscreen, it’s an almost complete delight. Anne Hathaway is fine as the film’s heroine who very nearly loses her soul — or at least her personality — to the Prada-clad “devil” of the title, fashion ruler Miranda Priestly (Streep). The problem is that Hathaway’s only as good as whoever she’s sharing the screen with. That works out swell with the three I’ve named, but falls pretty flat when dealing with her personality-challenged boyfriend (Adrian Grenier, whose own personality can’t help). What this means is you’ve got about 80-85 percent of a delightful movie that occasionally trudges to a stop while it deals with this duo’s spectacularly uninteresting relationship. That’s too bad, but it’s not fatal, because you know it’ll get back to the good stuff soon enough.

Original review: http://avl.mx/pm

The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Devil Wears Prada Sunday, Feb. 3 at 2 p.m. in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.

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About Ken Hanke
Head film critic for Mountain Xpress from December 2000 until his death in June 2016. Author of books "Ken Russell's Films," "Charlie Chan at the Movies," "A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series," "Tim Burton: An Unauthorized Biography of the Filmmaker."

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