The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

	Directed by: David Frankel	COUNTRY USA GENRE Comedy/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE The Devil Wears Prada RUNNING TIME 109 minutes
	Produced by: Wendy Finerman
	Written by (based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger): Aline Brosh McKenna

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Miranda Priestly	Meryl Streep
Andy Sachs	Anne Hathaway	½
Emily	Emily Blunt	½
Nigel	Stanley Tucci	½
Christian Thompson	Simon Baker
Nate	Adrian Grenier	½

Review

If someone gave you the task of making the most formulaic and narratively insipid film possible, you might, if you succeeded, end up with something like The Devil Wears Prada. Revolving around the fashion business, and taking an inside look at life in a fashion magazine, the film's purpose is to combine semi-clever comedy with semi-moralistic social satire. Although it succeeds slightly with the former, the points it makes when it comes to the latter are nothing but puerile, soporific clichés. David Frankel's direction is pallid, but the main problem is Aline Brosh McKenna's unimaginative and painfully predictable script. We're taken through all the expected narrative shifts required by genre conventions. And she can't even compensate with funny dialogue.

As for Meryl Streep's award-winning performance, it's one of her least inspired to date. Her Miranda Priestly is grey and monotonous. Streep has always been the Academy's pet, but the fact that she's given Academy Award nominations for performances like this undermines the nominations she's earned in the many movies in which she's excelled (e.g. Kramer vs. Kramer, The Bridges of Madison County). The other roles are mostly forgettable, apart from an amusing Stanley Tucci. Unfortunately, it's not enough to save this boring and unnecessary film. It has little of importance to say and is only sporadically entertaining.