The Devil Wears Prada review

[alobear]

I am very conflicted about this film. As with many a comedy, I didn't think it was funny, I thought it was really sad. However, this may have something to do with the position from which I viewed it. Many people think they've had the boss from hell, but I've actually worked for someone very like the Meryl Streep character in this film.

She was queen of her hill, her word in the office was god, and she was utterly unreasonable. I struggled to do an impossible job with no support or understanding, bearing the criticism and ridicule of an evil psycho bitch from hell. The only advice I ever got was, "You just have to work with her, she'll never change and nobody is going to tell her when she's wrong."

I have never felt as wretched as I felt when I handed in my resignation letter for that job, but now I view it as one of my proudest moments - when I finally realised I couldn't take any more and got out before it made me any more ill than I already was.

Anyway, "The Devil Wears Prada" would seem to have a simple message - if you make your career more important than your personal life, you won't have a personal life and you'll be miserable and unfulfilled.

However, towards the end of the film, they made the Meryl Streep character sympathetic, and the protagonist got what she wanted from the horrible job, namely a good reference from a very powerful figure in the publishing industry.

So, I would say it is very flawed in its message, because it muddies the waters at the end. I also don't agree with forcing the audience into sympathising with Meryl Streep's character - nobody should have an excuse for behaving that way, and nobody should have to put up with that kind of working environment.

Was the message actually that you have to suffer to succeed, that you have to make sacrifices at least for a while if you want to get ahead in life? I really don't know.

Watching the film was a very personal experience for me, and it brought up a lot of very bad memories, which I'm sure was not the intent, so perhaps other people might be able to see its moral more clearly than me.

Empire liked it, and so did my mum, which would normally be a good sign - but it was just a bit too messy for my tastes, and it felt like it copped out on the moral high ground at the end.