Devil Wears Prada

Hey everyone! The Devil Wears Prada is an ode to high fashion and the fine art of paying one's dues. With is high production quality, endless array of gorgeous clothes and accessories, and cameos from highrollers in the fashion world (I spotted YSL, Heidi Klum and Giselle in a small role), Devil is eye candy for girls. First off let me say that I haven't read the book. Though it was a huge hit, it just did not seem appealing to me. I thought it would be light on story and nothing but page after page of label-dropping. The movie definitely worked for me though. It's got a great cast with Meryl Streep channeling Cruella Deville, the always spot-on Stanley Tucci, and an interesting Anne Hathaway. Hathaway plays Andrea, an idealistic journalism graduate who can't find a job writing in NYC so she takes one as the second assistant to Streep's Miranda Priestly, the editrix of Runway (both substituting for Anna Wintour and Vogue). The opening shot alone was worth the show. It pans about as the entire high heeled staff of Runway skitters around in a panic perfecting the office in preparation for Miranda's morning arrival. Miranda tortures Andrea in ways large and small. Andrea in turn starts out disparaging the fashion world and slowly gets sucked in until she has the obligatory makeover. The movie makes a lot of judgements about women. How those who put their career first will surely end up regretting it, how you should follow your heart no matter whether there are jobs out there that let you viably do so, and how unfair it is that you should have to pay your dues. Pretty much anyone starting out in the workforce has to pay some kind of dues. And those choosing fields in the arts probably have to do so even more. We've all heard the horror stories of assistants in the art world, movie world, etc. It seems that creative types - once they reach the top - must be some combination of more demanding and more unrealistic. But is the payoff worth it? In many ways it seemed to be for Andrea. The obstacle of her equally idealistic boyfriend (a boring Adrien Grenier) not approving should have been easily overcome.

-sunday

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.