Review: The Devil Wears Prada

UK Release: 5th October 2006

Meryl Streep is the boss from hell in this glossy but shallow fashion industry satire. Demonstrating that less is indeed more, she quietly steals every scene as Miranda Priestly, the formidable editor of New York style magazine Runway, who routinely destroys egos and careers with just one softly spoken put-down or withering glance. It’s a delicious, precise performance that reduces Anne Hathaway’s aspiring journalist Andy Sachs to a crudely drawn, sitcom cliché, as she goofily struggles to meet Miranda’s increasingly difficult demands after becoming her personal assistant.

Though Andy’s trials are never quite as cruel as in ex-US Vogue staffer Lauren Weisberger’s source book, they’re still as entertaining, boasting a similar exuberance to director David Frankel’s earlier project, TV’s Sex and the City. Yet for all its colourful and catty observations, the film lacks genuine bite, skimming over key emotional issues and making a morally triumphant conclusion feel like a cop-out.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 109mins

Review by Sloan Freer