“The Devil Wears Prada” may have hit theaters with less hype and anticipation than “Superman” or “Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest,” but for those of us who have read the novel on which the movie is based, it was a long awaited arrival.

The book “The Devil Wears Prada” was written by Lauren Weisberger after working as an assistant to the all-powerful “Vogue” magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Wintour is widely known as a hard-nosed, rather brusque and very powerful business woman. Her no-nonsense attitude has earned her nicknames such as “Frozen” and Anna “Nuclear” Wintour.

Much like Weisberger’s personal experience, the book and movie’s main character is a recent Ivy-league graduate who fantasizes of one day working for “The New Yorker.” After moving to the city and applying for every journalistic position in the city, Andrea Sachs’ last hope is an interview with “Runway,” the top fashion magazine in the country.
A fashion nightmare herself, Andrea couldn’t be more mismatched for the position of second assistant to editor Miranda Priestly, played by a very poised and entertaining Meryl Streep.

Miraculously or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Andrea lands the job; if she can make it through just one year of work, she will earn a recommendation that will open doors to the world of journalism, including “The New Yorker.”
Andrea soon discovers, however, that spending a year as Miranda’s assistant may be too much to handle. Miranda’s over-the-top behavior is so outrageous that you don’t know whether to laugh or cry for everyone around her. Whether Miranda is calling her by the wrong name, complaining loudly of her incompetence, making Andrea change her plans last minute (including on her anniversary with her boyfriend) or making impossible demands, Miranda manages to make Andrea’s life a living hell.

Her personal life suffers, her friends and family don’t understand why she insists on continuing to work for someone so difficult, and she questions whether she is losing her moral and ethical footing in the world.

With fashion guidance from a coworker and intelligence that many of her predecessors lacked, Andrea learns the ropes and transforms from an untrusted, sloppy, second assistant to the assistant du jour who is asked to take the place of snooty, first assistant Emily on a trip to Paris for fashion week. Emily has been working for two years as Miranda’s assistant to earn her place at the fashion event of the year, and when she learns she is being bumped in order for Andrea to go along, she is devastated.

Similar to the popular novel “The Nanny Diaries,” which is also being made into a feature film, “The Devil Wears Prada” gives a scathing, if not always entirely truthful, inside look at a world many people will never access. (I found out from an inside source in the Big Apple that the ending we see in both the book and the film is fictional, which makes sense; not many people have such empowering endings to a bad relationship, personal or otherwise.)

Anne Hathaway, who plays another ugly-duckling-turned-swan in “The Princess Diaries,” stars as Andrea Sachs. Her on screen character garners less sympathy from me, however, than her printed counterpart. Meryl Streep is nothing less than brilliant as the mean old boss. Her curt addresses and icy stares could send chills down anyone’s spine.

The movie does stray from the book in several key ways which I won’t go into, and it’s always disappointing to me when a movie takes liberties with areas I don’t feel are necessary in order to convert the written word to the screen. If it is a matter of time or coherence, I understand, but in this case there were some changes I felt were unwarranted which changed the tone of the movie.

Funny and horrifying, occasionally at the same time, “The Devil Wears Prada” is a chick-flick all around that will keep you entertained for a couple of hours. For a more in-depth experience, I highly recommend reading the book.

***1/2

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