Thursday

I was surprised, as you might be, to find myself watching The Devil Wears Prada. This is not, however, the 'chick-flick' that I thought it would be. It has undertones of such a movie, but just about manages to resist them, I think. It rises above the chick-flick mainly due to the performance of Meryl Streep, a role that suits her very well, and which she brings off persuasively. Essentially, the film is about the terror of starting a new job. We've all experienced this: you enter a new world where everyone knows the rules except you, and no one is willing to share. The film works because of how particularly harsh this world is that Anne Hathaway has entered, and also because she's not actually interested in fashion. This is the point that interested me. Towards the middle of the film, she does become excited by it, and I began to think 'Oh well, I've lost interest', but then it turns around. The ending, as far as I remember, rejects the fashion world as cruel and pointless, which I was slightly astonished by. This is a chick-flick, especially because of the strange love-interest, the music and the success of the main character, but it is also strangely subversive. As to whether I liked the movie, a different issue, I would have to say no, but it did surprise me.