The Devil Wears Prada Analysis

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Directed by: David Frankel

Starring: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway

This film follows a powerful editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine, Miranda Priestly, played by an extraordinary Meryl Streep and a college graduate, Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway who joins her as an assistant, a role for which apparently a million girls would be ready, which is conveniently written. Anne Hathaway has no sense of fashion and she isn't even interested about it, she just wants to write and this job will apparently give her a job at any magazine she wants. There is a lot of hype created around and everyone is in a havoc when they know that she is entering and guess what, Meryl Streep lives up to the hype created. That is the only reason you can forgive the otherwise contrived hype created through dialogue, though they do it visually too sometimes. The film presents its arguments supporting the mad consumerist society saying that fashion is not about utility.

This film is about the journey of Andy, her experience of working with Miranda and how it changes her as a person. I had a problem with the portrayal of being passionate to a self destructive level, like everyone in the film is like the protagonists we see in Whiplash and Black Swan to some extent, but here it is shown in a lighter note unlike those films which explore the dark side of working like that. The accident of Emily was a heart breaking moment for me, the film makers seemed cold towards it. The best part about the film is that, she inherits some positive qualities from the experience like being confident and being presentable. This film is a story of self actualization wrapped up in comedy, which is not an easy thing to pull off. I don't know if the novel is written in a similar way, but the writing by Aline Brosh McKenna is worth appreciating. I watched this film totally from Andy's perspective, similarly without even being slightly interested about fashion but it eventually grows in. But, does Andy redeem herself by giving Emily her wardrobe? I don't know, I'd have liked to see something more for us to feel her redemption.

The editing is dynamic, especially the scene where they show passage of time cutting to different costumes everyday. The costumes of this film is quite noticeable considering the subject matter and it is apparently one of the most expensively costumed film where they used up to $1 million worth of costumes.  The film is loosely based on Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue. The male character, the boyfriend of Andy, is written like how men usually write female characters who are love interests of the protagonist; the writer actually admitted this. The guy is sitting at home or relaxing whenever she is leaving to work, it felt like it is the time of women to kick some ass through their writing. I also liked that Miranda Priestly is still the same till the ending of the film, I hoped that they won't change her character and make her change because she is too strong a person to change for the events which happen in the film.