The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) is and is not several things. It takes a critical look at the fashion industry in a satirical manner, but it is not a satire; it involves some romantic elements, but it is not strictly a romantic comedy; in the end it is a conventional story of a girl trying to live her life the way she wants to, but it isn't exactly just cliche. In sum, it's a very entertaining film neatly packaged (fashionably packaged), and it sells without pushing the audience too hard.
The film stars Meryl Streep as a goddess in the fashion industry, editor in chief of a highly influential fashion magazine. Anne Hathaway is a fresh graduate out of college who wants to be a journalist. She is totally ignorant about fashion, but ends up being Streep's personal assistant. The job basically involves everything from fetching Streep's dry cleaning, getting her coffee, to buying lots and lots of designer clothes, and of course taking in a huge amount of scrutiny and insult from Streep along the way. Hathaway decides to do it anyway, because it promises the opportunity of getting into virtually any publication with Streep's recommendation. And such is the film's basic story.
What goes on from here doesn't really contain too many surprises. Hathaway's ignorance to fashion obviously provides a great opportunity to throw out some satirical scenes, including one where Streep is duly insulted after Hathaway points out that the two green belts they are having a fuss over is virtually the same. Streep ends up giving a long speech about the importance of fashion, which I guess basically summarizes how pretentious the fashion industry is.
Of course, Hathaway eventually becomes very into fashion herself. Because of her heavy work she becomes more and more distant from her old friends, and more importantly, her boyfriend. The film devotes some further time developing her struggle between her career and her life, and she ends up making a choice.
Being a feel-good movie, what that choice is probably goes without saying. Indeed, pretty much everything in this film is very conventional, yet it is all very elegantly designed and executed, and you couldn't help but like it.
One reason for this is Anne Hathaway. She is perfectly in control and ideally cast for the role. Most of the time she doesn't need to do much but show off her looks in an innocent manner, and the audience will sympathize with her character emotionally. This is not criticizing her acting; it's just that for these kind of warm-hearted films, picking the right actress is half the job done - remember Meg Ryan and Sleepless in Seattle (or When Harry met Sally, for that matter)?
Another reason is that the film does not try to overachieve and be what it's not. It is not a satire. It is not a romantic comedy. It is a straightforward film about a girl and her choice in life. Her work, her romantic life, are all just part of this choice and not its entirety (in fact, so little of the film's time is devoted to her relationship with her boyfriend). In essence, you could say that it is a coming of age film. The fashion industry is just the medium for her maturity.
8/10