Wearing an ill-fitting top of insincerity matched with clunky, hypocritical heels, The Devil Wears Prada is in dire need of a makeover. Prada wants to be a cautionary tale about the tantalizing shallowness of the fashion industry, but its heart is more into tantalizing than giving caution. Anne Hathaway plays a frumpy aspiring journalist who takes a job as the personal assistant to the editor/”dragon lady” of a top fashion magazine (Meryl Streep). Streep has fun, but our heroine’s journey from nice girl to ruthless fashion queen and back again feels false. The movie really believes the same thing Streep’s character does: “Everybody wants this.”
