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The Movie:



Every year has to have a few surprise hits in film, but this year, none have been quite as big as "The Devil Wears Prada", a $35M picture that went on to gross nearly $125M. The time certainly couldn't be better for the film, as "Project Runway" and "America's Top Model" has created more mainstream interest in the fashion industry.

The film, based on the book by Lauren Weisberger, opens with Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) showing up at Runway magazine for her latest job interview. Studying to be a journalist, Andy doesn't have any interest in fashion and, at first, doesn't exactly fit in with the office atmosphere, a fact pointed out to her by everyone she crosses paths with. Although she thinks she doesn't do very well in her interview icy editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), she's shocked when she gets the gig.

The movie follows Andy as she goes from being a frumpy wallflower to a fashion queen, all while toiling under Miranda, who remains demanding 24/7, driving Andy apart from boyfriend Nate (Adrien Grenier, of "Entourage".) So, what we have here at the core of the movie is the traditional story of frumpy girl gets glammed up by new co-workers, caught up in her job and forgets about life and love and all that. It's "Coyote Ugly", only with designer clothes and an office instead of a bar.

The film's best moments are in the office, where Hathaway does a fine job playing off Streep, who deserves awards notice for creating a nightmare of a boss and yet, giving pleasing depth to the character. Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt are also superb as co-workers. It's when the film heads outside the office that the picture starts to fall apart. Nate can't be supportive of Andy's new job, he has to be all upset, so that Andy has to choose between her job, Nate and a journalist (Simon Baker) whose work she admires. Oh, and her one-dimensional friends no longer like the "new" Andy. All of the material focusing on Andy's personal life just feels forced and formulaic, which results in the picture losing some steam whenever it leaves the workplace.

Still, "Prada"'s fast and funny during the workplace sequences, and having the trio of Blunt, Tucci and Streep (all of whom are terrific) to play off of results in a bright, engaging performance from Hathaway that's her best yet.


The DVD

VIDEO: The review copy that arrived offered the special features that came with the final product, but the video presentation, while looking fine enough, is not the same as final copy. If a final copy arrives, then a discussion of the final copy video quality will be posted here.

SOUND: The film's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is essentially a "comedy mix", with the majority of the film's audio spread across the front speakers. Surrounds do kick in on occasion for some slight reinforcement of the music, but otherwise, they remained silent. Audio quality was fine, with crisp dialogue and bassy, rich-sounding tunes.

EXTRAS: The main extra is an audio commentary from director David Frankel, editor Mark Livolsi, costume designer Patricia Field, screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, producer Wendy Finerman and cinematographer Florian Ballhaus.

A gag reel runs for 5 minutes and provides plenty of funny bloopers, including a few priceless Streep slip-ups. A set of featurettes starts off with "Trip to the Big Screen", a 12-minute featurette that looks into how the best-selling novel was translated for the big screen. The featurette discusses the changes in tone that were made, choosing a director and other issues that the production faced prior to having the cameras roll. "NYC and Fashion" is a featurette that takes a look at the NYC fashion scene and the way that it is portrayed in the film.

"Fashion Visionary Patricia Field" is a featurette discussing how costume designer Patricia Field was brought aboard and how she assisted the production. "Getting Valentino" discusses how designer Valentino was convinced to be in a scene in the film. "Boss from Hell" is a short featurette talking about nightmare bosses.

15 deleted scenes are offered, with commentary from the director and editor. The scenes are interesting to see and some provide some enjoyable character moments. However, it's also apparent that most of these bits don't really advance the story and could go for pacing reasons.

Finally, we get a trailer, soundtrack spot and promos for other titles from the studio, such as "The Illusionist".

Final Thoughts: "Prada"'s fast and funny during the workplace sequences, and having the trio of Blunt, Tucci and Streep (all of whom are terrific) to play off of results in a bright, engaging performance from Hathaway. The DVD edition provides fine audio and a very nice set of extras.


Film Grade
The Film B
DVD Grades
Video ?/?
Audio: 87/B
Extras: 82/B


DVD Information





The Devil Wears Prada
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
2 DVD Edition
1.33:1
Dolby Digital 5.1
110 minutes
Subtitles: English
Rated PG-13
Dual Layer:Yes
Anamorphic:Yes
Region:1
Available At Amazon.com: The Devil Wears Prada DVD, The Devil Wears Prada Blu-Ray,Project Runway: Season 1 DVD,Project Runway: Season 2 DVD,America's Next Top Model: Cycle 1 DVD