Practically every major release out in theatres right now
just upsets me. Hobbs & Shaw is a sloppy remake of Tango &
Cash with the ego-driven, insecure masculine, lazy storytelling included.
Disney’s latest in a long line of conveyor belt remakes The Lion King is
quite possibly the most depressed a film has made me in a long time. I don’t
want to talk about these films, especially seeing as my last post was
negatively criticising a franchise I don’t want to be negative about. There’s
nothing positive to say about the current state of blockbusters, so instead we’re
going to talk about The Devil Wears Prada because I rewatched it
recently and this movie is really fucking good and I want to ramble on
something positive again.
For those of you who have not seen it, The Devil Wears
Prada is a 2006 film that follows Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) an aspiring
journalist who gets a job at the fashion magazine Runway, as an assistant for
the editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Though she has no interest
in fashion and Miranda is considered one of the most difficult to please bosses
imaginable, through hard work and dedication Andy is told working a year for Miranda
could guarantee her a job anywhere in the industry.
Now, Lessons From The Screenplay already did a fantastic
video discussing the opening of the film and how strong it is at establishing
characters, motivation, goals & obstacles in such a tight and fast pace
that I’ll just link to that here so you can learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WgzNFEu61o&t=505s
However, I would say that type of polished storytelling is
present throughout the whole film, not just the opening. There is nothing
overly complicated about the film’s structure, it’s just simply Andy has to be
good at her job and she’ll achieve her goal, however while convention would
dictate that Miranda is an obstacle for Andy to overcome or escape from, she is
in fact the very person who moves Andy towards her goal harder than anyone. Andy’s
disinterest in fashion is her main character flaw, she’s uninformed and disrespectful
to those who do take it so seriously that she mocks her fellow employees as if
they’re being silly about caring about the minute details of their job and
their passion. It’s Miranda herself that schools her on the history of the
fashion industry and even Andy’s style itself, how she’s not exempt from this
world and it is far from beneath her. It’s the best scene of the film because it
achieves so much. Up until this point Miranda has been seen as cold-hearted and
demanding but this is where we as the audience as well as our protagonist see
just how smart she is and that she’s the boss for a reason, she’s the best
because she demands the best. Likewise both us and Andy are informed on the
fashion industry and why they take it so seriously and why we should
take it so seriously, the film assumes we-like Andy-don’t have inside knowledge
on why this matters and here we get to see why it’s important, or at least why
it’s important to them.
Andy’s arc is not to escape the fashion industry or Miranda,
but to understand them. By the end of the first act there is a scene of Andy
complaining to her co-worker Nigel (Stanley Tucci) about how unfair Miranda is,
and rather than him telling her she has to fight back, he basically says “Grow
up!”. This is the real world and you can’t act like you’d get your dream job
right out the gate, you have to earn it and work hard, you also can’t behave like
this work is beneath you or else you’ll never do your job right. It’s honestly
a very sobering scene that feels much too rare to say to your protagonist that
everything they expect and want is wrong and they should seriously rethink
their perspective, or at least, it is in the first act.
This also leads into why many fans of this film view the
true antagonist of the film as Andy’s friends and to them I say: You are
absolutely right. Andy’s friends are in fact the ones holding her back and
encourage her negative behaviour. They steal her work phone when she has a call
from her boss and get mad at her when she doesn’t show up to a birthday party
because she got held up at work. In what world is missing a birthday because of
a work related event not a valid excuse? They later on criticise her for
taking an interest in fashion and claim “You’ve changed! You used to make fun
of people like this!” so they’re basically criticising her for taking an
interest in her job and working hard at it? This is Ross Geller levels of petty.
Of course they’re matched by Christian, a fellow writer who is also an incredibly
intrusive, obnoxious and controlling asshole that does not get called
out on at any point for how much of a creep he is.
There are times in the film where Miranda is overly
demanding, manipulative or downright cold but she is not an antagonist. She’s
shown to have quite a rocky homelife and it is mentioned several times how
difficult it was for her to get into the position of power she’s in, how if she
were a man she’d be seen as confident, powerful and inspiring. If everything
isn’t perfect then it’s Miranda who looks bad, she can’t risk the slip ups and
in the end her demanding nature is what in fact makes Andy such a hard working
and respectful employee that leads to her achieving her goal by the end. On top
of that, this has to be considered one of the best performances in Streep’s
career, she carries the role with such nuance that you believe how much power
and control this woman has without ever having to behave over the top, she
never shouts, looks angry and rarely says anything insulting, most of her
striking power comes just from a look. There are moments of fragility and
moments of comedy, though there are no big ‘cry for the Oscar’ moments there is
so much care put into portraying this character that I would put this up there
with any of her other big roles.
That’s not to ignore the stellar supporting cast,
specifically Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci who offer fantastic performances as
Andy’s co-workers. Blunt representing everything Andy worries she could be if
she gets drawn into this world too much, but also someone rather admirable for
how much work she puts into presenting herself. Then there’s Tucci who is
easily the funniest character in the film and acts as the voice of reason, being
the only person who isn’t scared of Miranda and simply because like her-he
knows how good he is, he knows he earnt his spot, and he knows Miranda isn’t
someone to be feared, but respected.
The Devil Wears Prada is an incredibly joyous
experience to watch, it’s funny, its characters are charming and it’s simple
enough to make it an easy viewing. It’s also a film with an incredibly refined script,
subtle detail in its performances, and is a film with a lot of passion put into
it. It’s a wonderful film that everyone can enjoy, and no matter how depressing
the film industry can feel at somepoint, we’ll always have gems like this to
look back on and appreciate.
-Danny
