The Devil Wears Prada

One unspoken goal I had when I began the task of watching every film my wife and I own was to give the ones that primarily belong to my wife a fair chance. It's true that there are some films like Hope Floats and Hardball that I have already seen and I already have a great distaste for and then there are those that I have avoided like the plague and will now be trying to give a fair chance.
First up on our list is The Devil Wears Prada. Sadly, this is not a supernatural film that attempts to destroy the image of a devil being red and having pointy ears and a long tail. No, it is a tour de force romp through the world of high fashion that at it's core is a fish out of water story.
Our fish is played by Anne Hathaway who plays a Northwestern graduate that has recently moved to New York City looking to start a career in journalism. However, starting a journalism career in New York can be difficult with nothing more on your resume than a degree and the work you did for your schools paper. Desperate, Andrea (Hathaway) takes a job as an administrative assistant for the devil Meryl Streep.
Streep plays Miranda Priestly, the woman in charge of Runway, a magazine which is considered to be the be all and end all of the fashion world. To her credit, Streep plays the role of the devilish dictator with a soft yet intimidating voice. She knows that every one is terrified of her and she maintains a sense of tension by continually giving off the impression that she can not be swayed by emotion or any other human feelings.
Andrea, who prefers to go by Andy, is driven by the opportunity to prove herself to Miranda despite the fact that she is totally out of her element working for a high fashion magazine. She is resourceful in this role and after attempting to make a statement against high fashion she finds herself conforming to the ideals established by her new peers.
Of course, as she conforms to her new peers she begins to alienate her old friends. The film continues on this path and Andy is faced with daunting challenges such as providing Miranda's daughters an unpublished manuscript of the final Harry Potter book. We also get glimpses behind the curtain as we see that Miranda is a person who has chosen to be successful professionally while sacrificing family and that that choice remains a painful one for her.
The film follows all of the typical cliches of the fish out of water story. Andy at one point finds herself fiercely defending her boss as she wins her approval only to feel blindsided when she realizes Miranda is even more in control than she ever knew.
So the question becomes, did I like it and the answer is no, but it's at least was not as painful to watch as I imagined it would have been. Watching with my wife and listening to her comment on the fashion and which outfits she liked made me realize that for me I felt the same way watching this as she does watching Miracle. I don't like the people Andy meets in her job. Miranda's other assistant is a walking cliche of bad attitude and worse self image. Stanley Tucci plays Nigel, another character who feels a need to make someone who is a size 6 feel fat is some how supposed to be the nice guy in the fashion world who personally helps Andy improve her sense of style. Outside the fashion world, Andy's friends and boyfriend bemoan the changes she is going through while failing to ever give me any reason to like them. On that note, I watched them feeling like I was watching a group of hipsters who sit in coffee bars or night clubs and seem to hold an equal level of disdain for people not like them that the fashion crowd has. In particular, her boyfriend seems to never be willing to give her new career a chance or to see an possible joy that career could bring her.
Another issue I have the film is the same one I seem to have with most "chick flicks" I watch and can't get into. The film fails to deliver a single male character who I can relate to, that I can enjoy watching and root for. This film is similar to another recent chick flick that received favorable reviews called The Waitress. Both films had strong and likable lead female actresses, but not a single male character that I care for. For the record, The Waitress treated men as if they are the scum of the earth while this one simply chooses to not give them a voice beyond the one dimensional focus the film needs them to provide. There are a handful of chick flicks out there that I enjoy provide a balance in strength between the male and female characters (a great example of this is Return to Me). This film provides me with none of that. I know some men out there will settle for a chick flick that has some "hot" actresses to look at, but that is not enough for me.
Ultimately, I leave watching this understanding why my wife loves it and thinking that that is okay. It's certainly not for me and for any guys out there I can not recommend it as a compromise film unless you somehow get your girlfriend or wife to watch Die Hard, Terminator, Aliens or something else along those lines as repayment.