Book to Film Review: The Devil Wears Prada

About the film

The Devil Wears Prada was released in 2006 by 20th Century Fox and is a loose adaptation of the book of the same name by Lauren Weisberger. The Devil Wears Prada is a comedy/ drama and runs for 109 minutes.

Plot

Andy Sachs is straight out of university and wants to be a journalist so she moves to New York. After a horrendous interview at Runway magazine for a job as a 2nd assistant to Miranda Priestly, Andy is amazed to find out she actually got the job. It's a job millions of girls would die for but Miranda is a bit of a nut case and everyone is terrified of her.

Andy doesn't fit in at all at Runway where everyone is skinny, beautiful and all dress immaculately. She has no knowledge of fashion or the magazine and the first assistant Emily is never nice to her. Emily knows that Andy isn't qualified for the job and doesn't hide the fact from her. The only person that is slightly nice to her is Nigel, the art director, who helps her adjust to her new life.

While Andy is getting sucked into a life of fashion, she neglects her boyfriend Nate and her best friend Lily. Andy's whole life seems to revolving around her job but will she realise who she used to be before she loses everything?

What I thought

Although the film differs quite a lot from the book I really liked it. I don't think the changes make a huge difference to the film but as a fan of the book I was quite disappointed in some parts. Andy's best friend in the book was quite a big part girl and was always with a different man but this wasn't the way she was portrayed in the film at all. I really liked her character in the book but I don't think enough time was given to her in the film. I understand though that some parts of books need to be left out of films because it will make the film too long.

Meryl Streep was amazing and got a lot of high praise for her role as Miranda. After reading the book I had a picture of her in my head and Meryl Streep played her perfectly. Every little one of her facial expressions showed exactly what she was thinking and she hardly ever had to say anything. There were few times where Miranda showed some emotion but it was really well done and Streep came off as really believable.

Anne Hathaway was also really good in her role as Andy. I'm really glad they didn't make her out to be some shy and timid girl to begin with like they do in most chick flicks. At least Andy started off well and only got a slight make over in the way of some better clothes and a fringe. Hathaway was very believable in her role and showed her emotions of being torn between her life and her job really well. I thought Andy was very easy to relate to and a lot of girls will like the film because of her.

The other characters' roles were quite small compared to Andy and Miranda but they all played their parts well.

The Devil Wears Prada is very much a chick flick and I don't think too many guys will like it, although it is my sisters boyfriends favourite film. I find that quite weird though. There is a serious side to the story as well as many comical moments which never fail to make me giggle. This film is a must for anyone who is seriously into fashion.