CinemaDave - Meryl Streep wears Prada

Meryl Streep will likely to be nominated again for an
Academy Award again this year. Not necessarily for
her work in one movie, but being involved in three
movies, "A Prarie Home Companion," " The Ant Bully"
and "The Devil Wears Prada." While "The Ant Bully"
was only a vocal cameo, Streep's portrays roles in "Prairie Home"
and "Prada" that could be polar opposite people. Therefore Meryl
Streep proves to be this generation's grand dame of
American Movies.

For "The Devil Wears Prada," Meryl Streep portrays
Miranda Priestly, the Queen of Fashion Models and
Exotic Runway runway shows. She is the devil in Prada,
her power and influence corrupts all those around
her. Miranda also has a loyal group of assistants and
sycophants who cater to her every whim.

Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) dreams of being a crusading
journalist. Instead, she goes to work and becomes the
Number 2 assistant to Miranda. A novice at first,
Andy pulls off some professional miracles and is
promoted to First Assistant.

Andy has a live-in boyfriend, Nate (Adrian Genier),
who is concerned that she is working late on too many
nights. Nate also needs to be concerned about
Christian Thompson (Simon Baker), a fashion hot shot
who is sweet on Andy. As Andy progresses in the world
of fashion merchandising, her moral compass spins out
of control.

Given her work in "The Princess Diaries" movies and
"Ella Enchanted," Anne Hathaway is perfectly cast as
naive princess Andy. Her wide eyed innocence wins the
audience to her side very early on. Even when Andy is
sinner, both the audience and the character does not
honestly seem to be aware of her trespasses.

As Miranda, Streep glories in her trespasses. Instead
of playing Miranda's villainy as over the top, Streep
takes the subtle choice and her performance is more
comically realistic. Streep has one character
revealing scene, sans make up, in which she reveals a
chink in Miranda's armor.

Based on the best selling novel by Lauren Weisberger,
"The Devil Wears Prada" is a thinly veiled fictional
account about her former boss, Anna Wintour, the
editor of "Vogue" magazine. Anna Wintour is a
frequent target for Animal Rights organizations.
Given the malleable nature of mass media, Wintour may
be flattered by Meryl Streep's performance as her
devilish alter ego when the Oscar nominations are
revealed in 2007.