Wednesday, December 13, 2006
The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada is a movie about the fashion industry, told in a mind-numbingly conventional way: Innocent Meets the Beast. The Beast is played by Meryl Streep as Anna Wintour of Vogue, who, according to the movie is the fashion industry's very own Soup Nazi. The movie is slick, the editing of particular note; the cinematography and the direction all first-rate. The actors all come across well — usually a byproduct of the director being competent; the movie adds up to an okay appetizer. (It all looks so dated though. The fashions, the feel of the movie. The director was a Sex and the City regular; Patricia Field was responsible for the clothing choices — pretty much a co-director in a movie like this.)
Streep is an example of a reputation without a referent. Her conception of her character, which probably is parrot-based on Wintour (wikipedia says not), is of a powerful figure who hardly needs to enunciate, so hanging on her every word are her trembling underlings. Streep drains her performance of interest: she pulls the energy and edge while attempting to portray a deeply ambitious in-fighter, a product of wealth and privilege, an individual without empathy or depth. In the commentary the predictable observations are made about this: no one would say anything about her behavior if it were done by a male counterpart. That is so true. Who has heard of men in leadership positions eviscerated in the media for being cranks, fools or simple-minded sadists. The media is far too decorous. Another supporting example that large swaths of reality are unavailable to politically correct ideologues.