Make me your Homepage
left corner left corner
China Daily Website

Streep makes The Devil Wears Prada a must see

Updated: 2006-09-29 19:38
By Jana Yang (chinadaily.com.cn)

Ignore critics who callThe Devil Wears Pradaa chick flick. Meryl Streep's stunningly subtle performance as super-diva Miranda Priestly makes it more of a hit than a miss on great extent. Streep shines in this devilishily funny movie.

The most fashionable movie of the summer, based on the Lauren Weisberger's best-selling novel, "The Devil Wears Prada," brings light humor and great actors to the big screen.

Weisberger wrote the book on her experience working for Vogue and also about the editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour. The Devil Wears Prada tells the story of Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), a recently graduated journalism major who is applying for the job of second assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the editor of Runway magazine. Runway is the most influential fashion magazine in the industry, and no one wields more power than Miranda. She is revered as a goddess by co-workers and competitors alike. As Andy was told repeatedly, if she survives a year, she'll be able to get a job at any magazine.

Streep proves that she is the undisputed queen of all actress by acting she-devil in this movie. Streep brilliantly performs the role of Miranda Priestly, a fashion icon and dominant editor-in-chief of "Runway." In the movie, she has thin lips, snow white hair and piercing eyes. She speaks slowly with a soft voice but has the presence of a diva.

Meryl Streep gets top billing but has less screen time; but nevertheless, together with the great team of actor, her performance makes the movie believable and interesting to watch from beginning to the end.

Miranda Priestly is a demanding editor who settles for nothing short of perfection. She expects it from everyone connected with the magazine and in her life. She has all at her control and call without ever raising her voice. She strikes fear in her employeees. She is impeccably coiffed and dressed in haute couture. The wardrobe is beyond beautiful for the entire cast.

Andy knows bringing coffee and answering Miranda's phone is not going to be as easy as it looks. In the world where Jimmy Choos shoes are a must, size six is the new size 14 and belts actually matter. The job turns out to be a nightmare and Andy soon realizes that all the people around Miranda sooner or later become slaves of her demands. People schedule their lives around Miranda's wants and needs.

Streep's Miranda is something slightly else, complex and compelling. Though her outfits and superciliousness are as outrageous as everyone else's, Miranda tends to speak quickly and quietly, to assume her supremacy even as she's vulnerable.

Streep invests her Miranda with the brains, ambition and cold blood to stay on top of what the saucer-eyed Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) sees as a frivolous fashion rag but others, including the world's top designers and the head of the publishing company Elias-Clark, know to be a major cash cow, and therefore sacred.

Contrasting with Streep's role in her past film works, this time, she brings us a big surprise and leaves me speechless. Streep shows a controlled, icy, methodical performance, one that makes those sitting in the audience tremble with fear every time the editor dismisses someone with a quiet, almost polite, "That's all." Her icy features are brushed and combed into a mask of slick professionalism, and she plays it murderously chilly. Streep is almost guaranteed to win yet another Oscar nominations I think.

I enjoyed the film, despite the whiny final half hour and the artificial conclusion. If you enter the cinema, you'll also find the moive delicious. Of course, Streep's strong performance is unable to be ignored.

8.03K
 
 
...
...