You'd think that the fashion industry would be ripe for parody. You'd think with its emphasis on pretentious attitudes and how seriously the industry takes itself, doing a parody would be like shooting ducks in a barrel. Unfortunately, you would be wrong, and The Devil Wears Prada proves it. For a movie that claims to be about the fashion industry, the movie seems to care very little about it. Instead of the sharp parody the movie could have been, director David Frankel (TV's Sex and the City) decides to bring us a tired and lame morality story about a woman who isolates her friends and family in order to get what she thinks she wants, only to discover she never wanted it in the first place. We've seen this story told many times before, and the screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna does absolutely nothing new with it, opting instead to take the road traveled too many times before. Unfunny, trite and repetitive, The Devil Wears Prada never quite abandons its Idiot Plot nature, so we're left with only the performances to admire.

Fresh-faced young woman Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is just out of college, and has landed what she believes to be the first big step toward a successful career in journalism. She is the new personal assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the head editor of New York's top fashion magazine, Runway. Everyone tells Andy that this is a job that just about any girl in America would kill for, and that if she can stick it out here, she can get a job working for any newspaper or magazine she wishes. What she quickly discovers is that the job entitles Andy to literally give up her entire personal life in order to fulfill every personal request of the cold and demanding Miranda, no matter how impossible or insane the request may be. Whether its finding a jet that can fly Miranda out of Florida during the middle of a hurricane, or tracking down the manuscript of the unreleased next Harry Potter book for Miranda's twin daughters, Andy finds herself under the thumb of her seemingly uncaring boss. With the help of one of her few friends at the magazine, an editor named Nigel (Stanley Tucci), Andy will learn how to survive being Miranda's new assistant. Unfortunately, her survival comes with a great cost, as Andy begins to neglect her family and friends for Miranda's needs, including her loving boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier). She slowly finds herself becoming a woman she doesn't even recognize during her time at Runway, and must decide if this is the life she truly wants for herself.

I have not read the original novel by Lauren Weisberger that inspired this film, and was apparently inspired by the woman's real life experiences working for the editor of a fashion magazine. All I know is that it has to be smarter than the film version, which keeps on hitting the same notes in scene after scene. Every other scene seems to involve Miranda making some kind of outlandish request, and then Andy has to deal with it. She runs around flustered for a while, then manages to pull it off, only to have her boss either ridicule or not even acknowledge her effort. The movie quickly settles into a routine from which it never escapes. This wouldn't be so bad if the characters were interesting, but the people in The Devil Wears Prada are simply one-note imitations instead of actual developed characters. Everyone seems to have one personality trait (the understanding best friend, the gay fashion editor, the co-worker who pretends to be helpful but stabs you in the back) which they carry throughout their entire performance. These people are so devoid of life and charm that it makes you wonder why anyone would think we'd want to watch a movie about them. Eventually we start to feel like we're watching the same scenes over and over, as the characters refuse to grow or develop past their introductory scene, except in the most minimal of ways. With a running time just shy of two hours, The Devil Wears Prada quickly becomes a chore to sit through when you realize it has so little to say.

And what it does have to say is wrapped securely in the ever-reliable Idiot Plot. This is one of those movies where the characters' problems could be fixed if they would just act like intelligent people, or talk to each other, but no one ever does simply for the sake of the plot. We watch Andy's gradual change from hapless newcomer at Runway who seems to be in over her head, to a confident and aggressive career woman who knows how to handle her job. This is a bad thing in this movie's eyes, as it comes at the cost of Andy's friends and family who don't seem to understand that this job was only supposed to be for a year, and then she would move on. Yet, they act like they've lost her forever after just a couple months of her working there. You'd think they'd be a bit more understanding because of the way her boss is, but they seem to care only about themselves. If these characters would just sit down and talk the situation out, problems would be resolved, and the movie would be over long before it is. Unfortunately, Andy's boyfriend walks out on her with hardly saying a word, so the story is forced to continue and come to its predetermined conclusion that friends are better than being good at your job. The movie seems to want to be an anti-Ugly Duckling story (plain girl becomes beautiful during her time at her job, but realizes she was happier back when she was plain), but it doesn't work because the character of Andy makes such stupid decisions during the film for the sole purpose of dragging out the plot. The screenplay keeps on finding ways to prevent Andy and her friends from talking to each other that it starts to get ridiculous. Their gradual drifting away from one another seems forced and calculated. It's the fault of the characters' own stupidity that they are destined to break up, not because of the demanding job as the movie would like you to believe.

The one and only saving grace that makes The Devil Wears Prada watchable are some fine performances by some fine actors. Anne Hathaway is as lovely and likeable as she has been in just about every film she's been in. She has a truly likeable screen presence that grabs your attention, and she makes Andy come across as more likeable than she probably should be, given her lack of intelligence in the script. She's even able to hold her own against Meryl Streep who is fine, if not a bit one-note, as the icy and manipulative Miranda. They have some great scenes together, especially near the end when they get to share some scenes alone, and the character of Miranda begins to show some slight traces of a personality outside of her usual demanding and impersonal attitude. Stanley Tucci is good, yet underused, as the editor who sort of becomes Andy's personal tutor for dealing and working with Miranda. He seems to come and go whenever the screenplay sees fit, so he comes across more as a plot device rather than an actual character. The supporting cast, which is mostly made up of the friends that Andy leaves behind, are barely even there, and pretty much spend every scene telling Andy that they don't like the way she's changed. There's a young writer (Simon Baker) whom Andy is introduced to on the job and becomes attracted to, but he's simply there to throw tension into Andy's relationship with her boyfriend Nate, and never seems to go anywhere.

I personally think The Devil Wears Prada goes wrong because it takes the wrong approach. Instead of taking the worn and tired route of exposing the "evils" of a successful career, the film should have dug some sharp satirical claws into an industry ripe for satire. But, the film just doesn't seem to care about its plot or its characters. It just wants to play it safe and not offend anyone. By doing so, it comes across as being toothless and lame when it should have been biting and sharp. I'm sure the book this film is based on must have had some insights on the industry, but this movie has none. The Devil Wears Prada is a big misfire from start to finish.

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