"The Devil Wears Prada"

The devil wears Prada… and Chanel… and Dolce and Gabbana… and... you get the idea. Sourpuss actress Meryl Streep is currently stealing the show in the silver screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s “The Devil Wears Prada” (out on Friday).

There are several implausible notions in this tale of a size-six girl who goes to work among the size-twos for a dragon lady boss, and in the end her love life suffers. Firstly, leading lady Anne Hathaway, who plays editor’s PA Andy Sachs, is hardly plump or dowdy – yet we’re led to believe that simply because wardrobe have concealed her size six frame beneath a frumpy blue skirt, she must not only be ugly but also fat… quite clearly, she’s neither. And having waltzed through the offices of a few high-profile fashion mags myself (albeit in London, not New York), I’ve never seen any of the kind of nonsense Meryl Streep’s OTT editor Miranda Priestly is supposed to demand. But once you leave your reality expectations at the door, “The Devil Wears Prada” turns into an enjoyable enough romp to amuse one on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

The major downside of the film, as far as I was concerned, was the ridiculously predictable sub-plot involving Andy’s doomed relationship with her nice but unfashionable boyfriend, Nate. It delivered nothing and added nothing, neither did the bar scenes between Andy, Nate and their two equally ‘uncool’ friends, neither of whom we saw enough of to garner any kind of character development so what was the point? The screen time would have been far better employed by focusing more on Andy’s relationship with Miranda, or cashing in on the hilarious demands Miranda makes of her staff with that glacial tone, culminating in a chilling, “That’s all”.