This sinfully funny, deliciously glossy film is a take on the 2003 bestseller by Lauren Weisberger (who denied writing it as a poison-pen letter to her former boss, famously demanding Vogue editor Anna Wintour). The names have been changed, of course, to ward off lawsuits.
Stepping up to the plate as imperious fashion editor Miranda Priestly, Meryl Streep knocks every laugh out of the park. More remarkably, she humanises a character who was little more than a bitch in Manolos on the page.
Streep teams up hilariously with Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs, the “smart fat girl” (she’s a mere size 6) who applies for the job as Miranda’s junior assistant at Runway magazine.
Andy, a journalism major at Northwestern, had her eye on The New Yorker, but was told that if she can run the gauntlet of Miranda for a year, there is no publishing Everest she can’t climb.
Before you can say “makeover,” Andy is transformed from a gawky giraffe into a swan who can trade up in lovers – from sweet chef (Adrian Grenier) to literary stud (Simon Baker) – and from cotton blends to the chicest of Valentino, Chanel, Donna Karan, Bill Blass. Galliano and Prada.
Director David Frankel makes expert use of the light touch he brought to HBO’s Entourage and Sex and the City, and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna leeches out the malice in favour of wicked sass.
Does the movie bite the fashion hand that feeds it? You bet. But it also pays due respect to the artful details turning the wheels of an industry that only seems frivolous.
The script tries to paint Miranda into a corner — the lonely careerist who can’t keep a husband or find personal happiness — but Streep won’t wallow in the clichés of victimhood. In a party of a movie, her performance is a comic and dramatic tour de force.
Miranda Priestly
Meryl Streep Andy Sachs
Anne Hathaway Emily
Emily Blunt Nigel
Stanley Tucci Christian Thompson
Simon Baker Nate
Adrian Grenier Lily
Tracie Thoms Doug
Rich Sommer James Holt
Daniel Sunjata Richard Sachs
David Marshall Grant Stephen
James Naughton Irv Ravitz
Tibor Feldman Jocelyn
Rebecca Mader Lucia
Jimena Hoyos Serena
Gisele Bündchen Paul
George C. Wolfe Editor
John Rothman Jacqueline Follet
Stephanie Szostak Caroline
Colleen Dengel Cassidy
Suzanne Dengel Heidi Klum
Herself Valentino Garavani
Himself Bridget Hall
Herself St. Regis Butler
Paul Keany Massimo
David Callegati John Folger
Stan Newman Ambassador
James Cronin Roy
Eric Seltzer
Director
David Frankel
Video
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Streep teams up hilariously with Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs, the “smart fat girl” (she’s a mere size 6) who applies for the job as Miranda’s junior assistant at Runway magazine.
Director David Frankel makes expert use of the light touch he brought to HBO’s Entourage and Sex and the City, and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna leeches out the malice in favour of wicked sass.
Miranda Priestly
Nate
Stephen
Paul
